Stalker is banned from Horowhenua

A mother says she became a prisoner in her own company after a man she helped teach to read and write continuously followed her.

She thought Hiram John Mackey simply wanted to be taught, or to be a friend. Instead, he lurked outside her house and used his motorbike to stop her when she drove in a 100kmh zone.

Mackey was sentenced in the Palmerston North District Court on Friday to eight months’ jail for criminal harassment, but the real sting in the tail was in his release conditions. He can only live where a probation officer lets him and he is banned from Horowhenua – the area where his offending took place – for the next year.

Judge Jim Large said the victim was trying to help Mackey with an adult literacy course at the time of the offending. ‘‘What occurred really does you no credit at all. Maybe you thought that there were other things potentially in the relationship.’’

He took his bicycle and rode past her house on four occasions in 2016. He became abusive when a friend of the victim’s tried to take a photo of him.

Mackey saw her again in July 2016, when he was riding a motorcycle and she was driving a car, with two children as passengers, between Levin and Otaki. He sped up and overtook her, but she stopped the car to let him get away.

However, he stopped, waited for her to continue on, then followed her. He again passed her, then slowed so she had to stop her car in the middle of the road in a 100kmh zone. She eventually got away.

In court, the victim said she suffered from anxiety and stress because of Mackay’s actions, to the point where she was terrified to go out alone. ‘‘I became a prisoner in my own company.’’

Mackey has spent the past three months in custody after breaching his bail.

The victim said that had given her the ‘‘absolute freedom’’ to go out alone.

‘‘I can’t believe how safe I felt.’’