Stalker ‘fixated’ on woman cleared of court order breach
A74-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, from Poynton, became obsessed, peering in the windows of her 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 getting back up to his old tricks over the summer.
The victim, who is in a wheelchair and lives alone, claimed she saw Lees driving slowly past her outside the Aldi on Wilmslow Road, Didsbury at around 2.30pm on July 19, Manchester Magistrates Court heard.
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.
In relation to the July 19 allegation, probation officers confirmed Lees had attended a probation appointment in Stockport from around 11am to noon and mobile phone data suggested his device was in Hazel Grove a short time later, and then back in Poynton near his home.
There were no hits on the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system that recorded Lees’ red Honda Jazz in Manchester around the time of the alleged incident.
However, the victim gave tearful evidence in court, insisting she did see Lees at the time in question.
Giving evidence, Lees admitted that in June this year he had seen the victim by coincidence in the John Lewis store in Cheadle.
He said he immediately left the area but then came back looking for her.
Asked why, he told the court: “It’s stupid...I just had a yearning to see her.”
Lees admitted he had been ‘fixated’ with the victim, but said he was receiving help from probation and a psychologist ‘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 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.