Judge talks of ‘grave offence, carefully planned’

JUDGE Nicholas Woodward said it was a ‘grave offence’ that was pre-meditated and carefully planned.

He said: “These offences are set against a background of obsessive behaviour directed to your ex-partner. You were moved by jealousy and an inability to understand your former partner no longer wanted to be with you. What you were intending can only be gleaned by looking at the items in your possession. All these items, in my judgement, can only be required for worrying and sinister purposes.”

Police discovered Whyte wearing a deer stalker in nearby Victoria Road. He was armed with a knife, rubber gloves, a cutter blade, metal wire, tape, a craft knife, a pair of scissors, handcuffs made from cable-ties, brown tape, cable ties and rope, the tunic, and the mask, which had a large knife inside.

The court heard Whyte - who has since had a heart bypass - told police he was using the equipment to repair a gazebo. He later pleaded guilty to attempted kidnap, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and possessing a knife in a public place.

Richard Davenport, mitigating, said: “This could have been far worse but when the mask was off it seems to have broken the spell and he calmed down. What led to this was his obsession with the timeshare money he believed he was owed. He became obsessed with the money. He has asked to apologise for what he has done, but at the time he was obsessed about the money.”

Whyte has also been handed a restraining order which stops him from contacting the victim, going near her Stoke-on-Trent home, or being close to Macclesfield Hospital.