Peeping Tom, 76, gets church class ban for stalking
A PEEPING pensioner has been banned from a church poetry group after bombarding a female worshipper with dozens of verses, books and magazines.
Edmund O’brien was convicted of harassing Beryl Lakin – but just days later resumed watching her from behind pillars and following her as she walked her dog.
The 76-year-old, of Ickenham, west London, has been hit with a stalking protection order which prohibits him from attending St John the Baptist church in nearby Uxbridge on Wednesdays, when the poetry class meets there.
According to court documents, Ms Lakin saw O’brien “standing in the entrance of the church and peeping round a pillar at her” two days after his conviction.
She told police: “My stalker has been a Peeping Tom again. Today is the fourth time since his sentencing.”
Uxbridge Magistrates Court heard that O’brien began harassing Ms Lakin in February 2020 after meeting her at the poetry session, sending “literature, photographs, magazines, books and other items” to her home until June last year.
She reported O’brien to the police in November 2020 and again in January 2021. On both occasions he was warned by officers not to contact Ms Lakin again. But last July Ms Lakin reported him to police once again and he was arrested before being charged with harassment.
He was bailed with a condition not to contact Ms Lakin but before his trial he approached her at church.
Two days after he was convicted of breaching his bail conditions and of harassment, O’brien went to St John’s while Ms Lakin was at the group.
The vicar advised him to stay away but in April O’brien phoned a friend of Ms Lakin to ask if she was moving as he had seen a skip outside her home.
The court also heard that O’brien had asked his probation officer last month if he could have “friendly contact” with Ms Lakin – and that he “doesn’t really recognise that this behaviour still amounts to behaviour of a type which would amount to stalking”.
Longtime St John’s worshipper O’brien is still allowed to attend the church on Saturdays and Sundays as long as he is not knowingly within 100 yards of Ms Lakin.