Harasser forced out neighbour
COURT ORDERS PSYCHIATRIC REPORT
A MAN has admitted forcing a woman and six-year-old child out of their rented home.
Peter Clark, 34, of Cliffmere Walk in Nottingham, pleaded guilty to harassment of his next door neighbour.
Allegations include “making threats”, “loudly speaking threatening words about her” and “staring repeatedly at her property and her”.
Clark moved in with his mother because of a house fire where he was living.
The allegations against Clark were originally that of stalking, but before the plea all parties agreed harassment would be the more appropriate offence.
He is alleged to have caused the woman “serious alarm or distress, which had a substantial adverse effect on her usual day-to-day activities”.
He originally pleaded not guilty to stalking, but in Nottingham Magistrates’ Court yesterday he pleaded guilty to harassment before a planned trial. He will be sentenced on January 11.
The case was adjourned for a psychiatric assessment.
Mark Fielding, prosecuting, said: “Clark would stand for hours on end staring at her house – he also used threatening language to her and uncertain texts to her, to the point where she had to keep all of her curtains shut.
“She moved out quickly because of this behaviour, living with a friend in Beeston for a while, where she paid to stay, before eventually finding a new property.
“The woman also lost money on the property she was renting, as she did not feel able to go back and clean it, and she lost some of her deposit through that too.
“She also had increased travel costs as she had to travel to take her son to school in Clifton.”
Amanda Parker, for Clark, said: “The neighbour was a friend of Clark’s mother, and she would go round for barbecues and that’s how she and Clark met.
“Things then changed when she got a partner – but in exchanges between her and Clark, not all of them were one-sided, which were about her making too much noise and friends parking on the pavement where a double-wheeled buggy could not pass.
“It’s almost like a neighbour type of offence.
“He would stand outside when going to smoke and stare at the property, and has not attempted to contact the woman since she moved – he did not know staring at the property would cause harassment, but ought to have known, and now he accepts that.
“Clark has mental health issues which have not been fully diagnosed, so a psychiatric assessment before sentencing would be helpful.”
Clark was released on bail.