Former Tory councillor stalked ex-wife in Porsche

A FORMER Tory councillor followed his ex-wife in a Porsche Cayenne during a campaign of stalking after she left him, a court heard.

Anthony De Havilland was a dominating and possessive husband to his then wife Simone Jackson at their home in Poole, Dorset, a court heard.

The former Conservative councillor was said to have controlled his wife’s finances and isolated her from her friends and family. When Ms Jackson, 33, left the 54-year-old, he refused to let her “get away from him”.

He instilled “a genuine sense of fear” in her by “bombarding” her with phone calls and Whatsapp messages and “tracking her movements”. The court heard Mr De Havilland called Ms Jackson 120 times over a few hours.

Ms Jackson said she got a sense that she was being watched and followed and on June 7 last year she had the first of several encounters with her ex.

She had been walking at Sandbanks and was heading back to her Range Rover when she said Mr De Havilland “jumped out” in front of her. She said:

“He started banging on the windscreen and I locked the doors.

“As I drove away I had to swerve to avoid him and then saw him run to his Porsche and start following me. I drove to the police station ... This was at 9.30pm and I stayed in the police station until 4am because I just didn’t feel safe to leave.”

Mr De Havilland denied the offences and claimed his ex-wife had been stalking him, but was found guilty at Poole magistrates’ court of stalking between May 15 and June 17 last year and will be sentenced next month.

Mr De Havilland used to go by his birth name of Tony Ramsden and once served on Bournemouth council.

In 2013, the planning agent was jailed for 10 months for dishonesty offences. He had obtained a £25,000 loan from a former business partner without declaring his bankruptcy status.

He reinvented himself as Anthony De Havilland after he got out of jail.

District judge Orla Austin said: “Mr De Havilland gave evidence in a way that suggested to me that he was unable to accept that the relationship was over ... It was harassment.”