Stalker, 74, is cleared of restraining order breach
A 74-YEAR-OLD stalker ‘fixated’ with a random woman has been cleared of breaching his restraining order.
William Lees, 74, was jailed last year after admitting a previous breach in relation to his 10-year campaign of harassment against his victim.
The pair have never been friends or in a relationship, but Lees became obsessed with her, peering in through the windows of her Didsbury home and following her on the bus in his car.
Lees was first handed an indefinite restraining order banning him for being within a mile of the woman’s address in 2012.
He has admitted breaching the order before, and was jailed for 12 months last November.
He was freed around April this year, and was accused of returning to his previous behaviour over the summer.
The victim, who is in a wheelchair and lives alone, claimed she saw Lees driving slowly past her outside the Aldi store on Wilmslow Road at around 2.30pm on July 19, Manchester Magistrates Court heard. ONE of the world’s rarest mammals - the eastern bongo - has been born at Chester Zoo.
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She also claimed to have seen him in the Ye Olde Cock Inn in Didsbury ten days later.
Police investigated and said examinations of CCTV confirmed the victim was in the Ye Olde Cock Inn pub, but no evidence of Lees visiting was identified and that case was dropped, the court heard.
In relation to the July 19 allegation, probation officers confirmed Lees had attended a probation appointment in Stockport from around 11am-12pm and mobile phone data suggested his device was in Hazel Grove a short time later, and then back in Poynton near his home address.
However, the victim gave tearful evidence in court, insisting she did see Lees at the time in question.
“He looked at me as he was driving past, it was a few seconds,” she told magistrates.
“I always look because I know he follows me. I’m careful because I’ve been followed by this gentleman for ten years.
“I’m not very well, I have terminal cancer, I just want to live in peace.”
Lees admitted he had been ‘fixated’ with the victim, but said he was receiving help ‘to address this problem.’
As regards the July 19 allegation, he insisted he had returned home to Poynton and was probably watching a cricket match at the time the victim claims he was in Didsbury.
Magistrates found him not guilty of breaching his restraining order, saying that although the victim was ‘firm’ in her allegation that she saw Lees, prosecutors had not satisfied them that the offence took place.
Lees was awarded costs but his indefinite restraining order remains in place.