Stalker who has a ‘lifelong’ obsession with BBC’S Emily attempts 20th order breach
HE WROTE LETTERS CALLING FOR END TO 30-YEAR ‘WAR’ WITH JOURNALIST
AN “obsessed” stalker who has had a three-decade fixation with former BBC Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis has been found guilty of attempting to breach a restraining order for the 20th time.
Edward Vines wrote eight letters addressed to Ms Maitlis and her mother expressing his “unrequited” love for her, which he tried to send from HMP Nottingham between May 2020 and December 2021.
Nottingham Crown Court heard that in one of his letters to the journalist the 52-year-old told her he would “continue to brood and to write letters in prison”, unless she spoke to him about “her behaviour in 1990.” Jurors took just under two hours to accept the prosecution’s case after they were told he “systematically and with increasing frequency” breached two separate restraining orders imposed on him in 2002 and 2009 – with 12 previous breaches to his name and seven separate prosecutions.
Vines previously stood trial in October last year, and after proceedings were halted due to medical issues he wrote two further letters in which he attempted to blame the journalist for not admitting to being “attracted to him”. As the verdicts were returned on Monday, the defendant showed no emotion and looked straight ahead before being taken away by prison officers. He had denied all eight charges.
Ms Maitlis interviewed the Duke of York in 2020 which led to Andrew stepping back from official public duties after criticism over his unsympathetic tone and lack of remorse about his friendship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
A jury panel of seven women and five men rejected Vines’ claims that he never intended the letters to reach the Maitlis family after he told the court he wanted a jury to see the letters “so that they can hear my views and that Emily owes me an apology”. Vines had told the court he was trying to “perfect the art of letter writing” and that he wanted to “have that moment so we can finish this war”.