GILLINGHAM STALKER BANNED FROM CONTACTING EX-GIRLFRIEND OR GOING TO FAVERSHAM SPARED JAIL AGAIN AFTER IGNORING RESTRAINING ORDER
A stalker banned from contacting his ex-girlfriend has avoided prison again after breaching a restraining order just months after it was imposed.George Weller was spared custody in July after a court heard he subjected the woman to a sustained campaign of harassment following the breakdown of their eight-year relationship.
The 29-year-old, of Arden Street, Gillingham, was instead prohibited from contacting her or her daughter for five years and told he could not go to Faversham, where they live.
But last month he attempted to add both as friends on Facebook, and GPS monitoring later showed he had entered the town on multiple occasions.
The woman reported the breach to police and Weller was arrested on Tuesday (December 15).
Officers also found him in possession of a small quantity of cannabis.
He was charged with two counts of breaching the restraining order, possession of a class B drug, and breaching a community order by failing to attend probation appointments and entering the exclusion zone.
Prosecutor Victoria McGrady told Medway Magistrates’ Court: “He’s prohibited from contacting her via a five-year restraining order which was issued in July at this court.
“He tried to add the victim and her daughter on Facebook.
It’s not his daughter, and that’s a deliberate breach of the restraining order.
The court heard Weller’s GPS tag had flagged several violations and that he had repeatedly failed to attend appointments with the probation service.
He had been given the restraining order earlier this year after magistrates heard how his behaviour escalated following the end of the relationship.
Despite being told it was over, he continued to bombard the woman with calls and messages, turned up at her workplace, contacted her relatives, and later arrived unannounced at her home while drunk, shouting through the letterbox demanding to be let in.
Even after being released on police bail, he ignored conditions not to call her and even convinced his mother to telephone her on the pretence he wanted to know how their dog was.
In a victim impact statement read to the court at the earlier hearing, the woman said Weller was addicted to drugs and alcohol and was not the man she had first met.
“He was controlling and manipulative and was continually asking for money,” she added.
“I couldn’t breathe because of him.
He would turn up at my work and stand in the car park and continually call me.
The mental abuse has made me a nervous wreck, and I refuse to go to Medway as I know he’s there.
I lock my doors and ensure visitors lock the door when they come in.” Despite that history, magistrates imposed a 24-month community order in July after taking into account seven weeks Weller had already spent in custody.
The order included rehabilitation sessions, GPS monitoring to keep him out of Faversham for a year, and the five-year restraining order protecting the woman and her daughter.
At the latest hearing, Hamza Adesanu, defending, said Weller accepted responsibility for the breach.
“He entered early guilty pleas, and these are the first sort of offences he’s committed like this,” he said.
“He accepts the wrongdoing, and he only reached out because he’d been drinking, and that was in November; there has been nothing since.
He hoped there would be reciprocation, but drink is still an issue for him.”
