CAMPAIGN OF INTIMIDATION AND STALKING BY TEACHER LEFT WOMAN LIVING ‘IN FEAR’
Victim suffered ‘very serious harm’
A TEACHER carried out a campaign of intimidation and stalking against a young woman.
Nathan Pettit, formerly of Paris Avenue, The Westlands, was ‘obsessed’ with the woman whom he initially met through their mutual interest in fitness training and they began a relationship.
However, just a few weeks later she discovered he was also seeing another woman and when this woman confirmed it was true she ended her relationship with him.
Despite this there was continued contact and Pettit – who taught at a Stoke-on-trent secondary school – followed her and disrupted an event she was attending. He then went to her home and stayed the night but later argued.
Liverpool Crown Court heard she repeatedly asked him to leave but he refused and stopped another night.
Chris Stables, prosecuting, said the woman accused Pettit of a serious criminal offence, though he was cleared by a jury. It was after that alleged incident he began repeatedly calling and messaging her.
The court heard there was ‘a controlling’ aspect to it.
An example was when she had a medical appointment about contraception he insisted she was not seen by a male doctor. After she had been he repeatedly rang her and when she eventually answered, her friend, who was driving her home, heard him ‘shouting and screaming’ at her.
She then blocked his social media accounts but he created more and different Instagram profiles to try to reach her.
Mr Stables said: “He left voicemail messages on the complainant’s mobile phone and threatened the complainant by stating that he had intimate photographs and an intimate video recording from their time together. He indicated he would not delete the images and the recording, and taunted the complainant with threats of disclosure generally.”
Staffordshire Police arrested him at his then home and he made no comment. He was bailed, posted details of the police investigation on his Instagram page and said the allegations were false and he would make everything concerning the case public when he could. She obtained a non-molestation order but he breached it and was prosecuted and fined, said Mr Stables.
Pettit admitted stalking, which spanned five months, and intimidation, for five weeks of that period.
Paul Becker, for Pettit, said his client’s intention had been to clear his name ‘but he went about it the wrong way and there is no justification for his behaviour.’
Mr Becker said he was a highly intelligent man who taught at a secondary school in Stoke-ontrent before he resigned as a result of the serious allegation against him.
Judge Garrett Byrne said Pettit’s letter to the court was notable for the absence of remorse or empathy, though he had shown some in his pre-sentence report.
“Your conduct was committed over a persistent period of time born out of obsession with her and the inability to let the relationship go,” said Judge Byrne. “What is most noticeable was your intent to cause her the maximum distress possible.
“Even after your arrest and release that did nothing to deter you, so determined were you to make her life as difficult as possible. It was planned and sophisticated.”
He said Pettit, now of, Bolton, ‘posted a disgraceful and misogynistic photograph,’ adding: “All of this had a real impact on her. She described her trauma and your behaviour infected all corners of her life. She now lives in fear of seeing you and your car.”
Judge Byrne said Pettit had caused ‘very serious harm’ to her, suspended for two years as there was ‘a realistic prospect of rehabilitation’.