‘You’re a bitter old drunk and I’d burn you to the ground’
Ecologist bombarded woman City exec with abusive messages after affair they began in rehab soured
A MARINE ecologist nicknamed the ‘Wild Angler’ threatened to ruin a leading corporate executive after she ended a torrid affair they began at a rehabilitation clinic.
Nicholas Grasby, 42, bombarded married City bigwig Justine Gallen with abusive messages after she left the £3,640-a-week facility to return to her family.
In one of his 50 jealousy-fuelled missives, Grasby – a specialist in fisheries management for the Environment Agency and an expert in the Japanese art of growing bonsai trees – told Miss Gallen: ‘You are a bitter old drunk and I have no concerns about burning you to the ground.’
In another, he said: ‘You are a wimpy haired old mean saggy bitch.’
Miss Gallen, 55, a former PA for Credit Suisse whose firm advises various investment banks in London, contacted police.
At Warrington Magistrates’ Court, Grasby was banned from contacting mother-of-three Miss Gallen for 12 months under a restraining order after he admitted harassment.
The court heard the couple met this year when both were admitted to the clinic in Cuddington, near Northwich in Cheshire.
Laura Simpson, prosecuting, said: ‘ A week after they started the affair the defendant left the rehabilitation centre. From then, they visited one another.’
But the court heard they fell out when Miss Gallen visited Grasby on September 1. The pair went for a walk and a drink before returning to his home. Miss Simpson said: ‘He asked her to leave and he was acting in an aggressive manner. She left the property and returned home to Bath.
‘Since that incident, the defendant has been sending the victim numerous abusive text messages.
‘Some were threatening towards her and her ex-partner.’
The court heard the messages ‘caused distress to the victim’.
Liam Kotrie, in mitigation, stressed his client – who had no previous convictions – was not threatening the victim with arson when he said he would ‘ burn her to the ground’ but rather that he wanted to ruin her reputation. He acknowledged the restraining order was ‘the least this woman deserves’, adding: ‘ The messages were frankly vile. They were very nasty and designed to hurt her.’
Mr Kotrie said that the relationship between the ‘vulnerable’ pair had been unhealthy and that Grasby had become jealous – worsened by his poor mental health after the ‘amicable’ breakdown of his previous marriage.
He told the court: ‘ I have a letter from a doctor that states he has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
‘He has been taking antidepressants, but they were not helping as much as they were and he turned to alcohol.’
Mr Kotrie said Grasby had paid ‘tens of thousands’ of pounds for his spell at the rehabilitation clinic. He added: ‘While there he started this relationship. It was not a healthy way for things to continue. The relationship continued when he left and it was still unhealthy.
‘I have talked to him about the messages. He regrets them. He is ashamed of them. He is clearly trying to improve things. He is seeking therapy and is in regular contact with his doctor. He is doing everything he can to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.’
During sentencing last week, magistrate Philip Pegum told Grasby: ‘It must have been a very frightening period for Miss Gallen.’
Grasby, of Mobberley, Cheshire, who calls himself the Wild Angler on Instagram, was also fined £653 and ordered to pay £381 in costs and a victim surcharge.
According to her online profiles Miss Gallen went to the Royal High School in Bath, where fees are £35,427 a year.
It also states she is a partner at London-based Executive Search Leaders, which has advised on corporate mergers in the US, Australia, Japan, Mexico, China, Hong Kong and Singapore.
‘The messages were frankly vile’