TENANT WAGED A CAMPAIGN OF ‘HATRED’
Evicted man faces jail for labelling council investigator a paedophile
A NUISANCE council tenant who was evicted from his home has been warned by a court he faces jail after waging a campaign of ‘hatred’ against an antisocial behaviour officer.
Stephen Fisher, 63, targeted investigator Dave Clark after being taken to county court to force him out of the home he lived in for two decades. The court heard Fisher left notes calling Mr Clark a ‘paedophile gang leader’ and a ‘pervert’. They were unfounded allegations.
Fisher pleaded guilty to charges of breaching a county court injunction and will be sentenced on October 8.
He said outside court: ‘All this is bamboozling, this is bullying to the highest degree. I am not a bad person.’ He added he ‘had no choice’ but to plead guilty, and added his eviction was ‘inhumane’.
A COUNCIL tenant evicted from his home waged a campaign of ‘hatred’ against an anti-social behaviour officer by distributing leaflets falsely calling him a paedophile.
Stephen Fisher, 63, targeted Portsmouth City Council investigator Dave Clark after being taken to county court to force him out of the home he lived in for two decades.
For years nuisance Fisher plagued people living near him in St George’s Street, Portsea, and was slapped with an injunction during eviction proceedings.
At Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court, Fisher was warned he faces jail for his ‘campaign’ against Mr Clark, who is the senior anti-social behaviour investigator at the council.
Prosecutor Richard Withey said: ‘There’s rather protracted dealings between the two which culminated in Mr Fisher being evicted in 2018, and since then Mr Clark says there has been a campaign against him.’
Fisher left notes calling Mr Clark a ‘paedophile gang leader,’ ‘pervert’ and ‘perjurer’ at the Somers Town hub on July 1 last year, Mr Withey said.
Then on October 11, Fisher left Mr Clark a voicemail alleging the same false claims and five days later returned a council letter to Mr Clark with the same accusations scrawled on top.
In his letter he said ‘your friend Ackroyd’ – referring to a county court district judge – and claimed Mr Clark and the judge had sought to ‘pervert the course of justice by illegally evicting me’.
In a statement read out in court, Mr Clark said: ‘It continues to be frustrating. It annoys me and he’s starting to affect my working life.
‘I’m wondering what he’s going to do next.
‘Although he doesn’t scare me physically he’s causing anguish and distress to my good name and in the roles I carry out for Portsmouth City Council.’ He added: ‘He’s determined to do so with his hatred against me.’
In a statement issued after court, he added: ‘For a number of years he persistently harassed his neighbours, staff at Portsmouth City Council and even clergy at his local church.
‘He was eventually evicted from his home in December 2018 and as soon as the suspended prison sentence expired in June 2019 he re-commenced his harassment, this time focusing exclusively on myself.’
Fisher, now of Kingston Road, repeatedly breached a county court injunction, the court was told on Thursday.
Fisher had been accused of putting up signs at Rudmore Roundabout and Blackfriars Road in July but pleaded guilty to harassment on a basis not including the signs.
Reading his basis of plea Tim Sparkes, mitigating, said: ‘I accept that my conduct was not rational as I was still very angry because of what I view as an unfair eviction.’
But outside court Fisher approached The News and said: ‘All this, this is bamboozling, this is bullying, to the highest degree.
‘I’m just a man with a van. I was born here and I feel disgusted.’
He added he ‘had no choice’ but to plead guilty, and added his eviction was ‘inhumane’.
He said: ‘I’m not a bad person, I’ve never been violent. But first of all I was a racist, then I was a bully, then I was a gangster and now I’m a fantasist. When’s it going to stop?’
Fisher will be sentenced at the same court on October 8 after probation assesses him.
His sentence could ‘include a custodial sentence for the harassment,’ district judge David Robinson said.