‘Stalker climbed up scaffolding to bang on BBC DJ’s window’
A BBC DJ told a court yesterday how a woman accused of stalking him scaled scaffolding at his home to bang on the windows.
Gilles Peterson, 55, said he was terrified as he watched Sarah Jayne Rook from behind the blinds.
The Radio 6 star claims Rook had bombarded him with death threats as part of a three-month stalking campaign.
The 43-year-old is accused of turning up at the DJ’s North London home between January and March and shouting racist slurs at his Japanese wife. Mr Peterson said he once found a torn up picture of himself on his car. Giving evidence via video link yesterday, he told Stratford Magistrates’ Court in East London how he was in bed at 10pm on February 18 when he heard a commotion outside.
‘My wife answered the door and when the person asked to see me, my wife said I was asleep,’ he said. ‘[Rook] then started shouting abuse at the house constantly for about half an hour until the police arrived.
‘All kinds of stuff was shouted, paedophile, she was shouting “Hiroshima” at my wife, rapist, these kinds of very extreme words being shouted loud, late at night, at my house.’
In March, Rook is said to have posed as a charity worker to try to get into the house. Two days later, the DJ, who was awarded an MBE in 2004, found the torn up photo of himself under his car’s windscreen wipers. Rook is also accused of battering the vehicle with a pole.
Later in March, she allegedly knocked on a window of his home after clambering on to scaffolding, the court heard.
Mr Peterson, who plays DJ sets at clubs, said: ‘She was banging on my window trying to get my attention and then we were having building work done on the house and she climbed the scaffolding and sat at the top until police arrived. I knew it was a very traumatic experience for all of us. I was worried about the situation itself because it was escalating. It was so frantic and extreme.’
Rook is also accused of racially abusing a police officer when she was arrested in March outside Mr Peterson’s BBC studio.
The court heard she claimed she was the one being stalked.
Prosecutor Matthew Groves said as soon as she was released on bail, she accosted Mr Peterson, screaming: ‘You will die.’
Rook, of Surbiton in southwest London, yesterday stormed out of court after making multiple interruptions.
She denies a range of charges including stalking and racially aggravated harassment. The trial continues.
‘Shouting abuse constantly’