Medic’s car bugged by jealous ex-lover
A GYNAECOLOGIST was bugged by her jealous handyman former lover who followed her movements after she had broken off their affair.
Dr Marie Gerval was unaware that Kelvin James had a tracker installed on her car until she was stopped for suspected drink-driving.
She passed a breath test and on asking police how they knew she had visited a pub was shocked when the officers said an anonymous caller had tipped them off.
Dr Gerval, 52, who works in NHS menopause clinics, confronted James and he admitted having the tracker installed when he borrowed her car.
James, 58, of Orrell, Greater Manchester, admitted stalking. He was ordered to wear a monitor tag under a 12-week curfew, given a 12-month community order and banned from contacting Dr Gerval for a year.
Steve Woodman, prosecuting, said Dr Gerval and James met in April 2020 when she needed guttering work doing. He told Wigan magistrates: “They formed a relationship which developed into a romantic involvement.
“It lasted from about late 2020 to early 2021. After their relationship ended, they maintained a distant friendship via text.
“In the summer of 2021, Gerval noticed James was suffering with his mental health. Being a health professional and a friend she reached out to James.
“James asked if he could use her Renault for a while.When he returned the car... James said that he would like them to get back together again.”
He said Dr Gerval refused his offer politely but James sent “a barrage of texts berating her and asking her who she had seen.
“Gerval was stopped by the police and made to take a breathalyser test, which she passed. When the pair met up again, ostensibly for James’s mental health, he started telling her he had seen her with other men and knew everywhere she had been over the past few days.”
Mr Woodman added: “He claimed that he had just driven past by chance. She asked him again if he had been tracking her and he admitted he affixed a tracking device to her car.”
James was told to pay £85 costs and a £95 victim surcharge.
Jean Hamilton, the chair of magistrates, said that “this has clearly caused the complainant serious stress and harm”.