CHEF 'STALKED HIS PARTNER AFTER THEY SPLIT UP OVER HIS CONTROLLING BEHAVIOUR'
An executive chef stalked his partner after they split up over his controlling behaviour, a court heard.Daniel McGarey, 40, relentlessly pursued his ex partner in a desperate bid to get back with her.
McGarey bombarded her with letters, phone calls and unwanted visits to her home in Weymouth.
His three month campaign of stalking left her frightened.
But when she found out the father of two was homeless she let him stay in the spare room of her home.
Matters came to a head a few days later when his partner returned home to find a mess in the office and spare room.
The police were later called and McGarey was arrested for stalking and criminal damage.
Magistrates heard McGarey had met the victim while they worked in London.
The victim then relocated to Dorset so she could be closer to her family and McGarey later followed her.
In February the couple took over the running of a waterside restaurant in Portland Marina.
But things unravelled pretty quickly and by June they had split up, with his partner reporting the defendant to Dorset Police for controlling and coercive behaviour.
He was being investigated for this when he began his stalking campaign.
Leah Dillon, prosecuting, told magistrates in Poole: "On June 9 the defendant was arrested and interviewed for controlling and coercive behaviour and on the same day he went to her home address.
"She didn't answer the door because she was frightened.
"He let himself into the back garden and watered her plants and hung around.
"He went to the address three or four times a week.
"On June 13 she found two of the defendant's letters on the patio table in the garden.
"On July 6 there was a knock at the front door and she looked through the windows and saw the defendant walking away.
He then put his phone over the fence, maybe to use the camera, who knows.
"Then on July 10 she got another letter that was nine pages long from the defendant saying he wanted her back and he was sorry for everything.
"He repeatedly phoned the address over the next few weeks.
Ms Dillon said that by mid-September, his ex found out the defendant was homeless and so let him move back in.
She said: "On September 29 the complainant got back from work and she could smell urine.
She saw some specks of red wine and urine in the office and the spare room where he had been staying.
The next day a card was delivered and she got five more from him trying to justify his behaviour.
Ms Dillon said that on October 3, McGarey was drinking at a pub in Weymouth and was 'very animated' and 'wasn't making sense'.
She said the defendant told people he had 'stabbed his wife' the night before.
This prompted staff to call the police and officers rushed to her address to make sure she was unharmed, which she was.
Ms Dillon said: "She doesn't want any more contact from him and we ask for a restraining order." McGarey, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to charges of stalking and criminal damage.
Patricia Sheehan, defending, told the court: "He had a good job.
He met the victim when they both worked in London.
"He is a man of good character, but he has crossed the line, he knows that.
"His relationship with the complainant brought an end to the contact he was having with his two sons and he has a lot of bridge building to do." McGarey was remanded into custody and will be sentenced in December.
