A lovestruck mayor was convicted of stalking after ‘using his position’ to trace a barmaid before sending her letters to the wrong address. Graham Roberts, 72, accessed an address for her via the electoral roll. He believed that he was sending letters and £40 cash to the barmaid, telling her that they were ‘soulmates’.
But he sent the letters to the wrong house and the woman who received them took them to the police, magistrates heard. Roberts, mayor of Whitehaven in Cumbria and also chairman of the town council, pleaded guilty to stalking without fear. Pamela Fee, prosecuting, said a woman went to police with letters she had been receiving to her home address. She didn’t know who they were from.
The woman returned with more letters which were unopened. The letter stated that he loved her and there was £40 in cash, along with a business card with the name Graham Roberts. He was interviewed by police and accepted that he had been sending letters to a female who he believed worked at a pub in Whitehaven. But the woman who was sent the letters had never worked at the pub, Ms Fee said.
Further enquiries then took place and it was found that the ‘intended target’ was another woman. Ms Fee said Roberts got the information from the electoral roll, using his position as mayor, but got the wrong address. In the letter, Roberts said he loved her and they were ‘soulmates’. He said he wanted to be with her to ‘love and protect her’. He also made comments about things she had worn.
The woman who was the intended recipient of the letters told police that Roberts was a regular in the pub and ‘part of the furniture’. She said he would follow her around and try to engage her in conversation. She would speak back in a friendly manner. But his behaviour ‘seemed strange’ at times, especially when she was with a boyfriend or male friends. She said his behaviour was ‘very different’ to when she was on her own.
Roberts accepted he had sent the letters and obtained the information of where he thought that she was living. He said he was in love with her and made full admissions to the behaviour. The prosecutor said there was cause for concern for both the woman who received the letters and the intended victim. The woman who received the letters had stopped running at night because she was scared someone was watching her or following her.
She didn’t know where the letters were coming from. Roberts was ‘regularly seeking’ the victim out while she was in the pub, the court was told. Ms Fee said there was ‘some sophistication’ in finding out the address but the wrong address was obtained and somebody else was written to.
Roberts had used ‘his position to get the information from the electoral roll’, the prosecutor said. Mike Woolaghan, representing Roberts, said mitigation would be given in full when he returns to court to be sentenced. He said while there had been some planning, it was ‘not especially sophisticated’ but there had been some distress caused to a couple of people.
The case was adjourned to allow Roberts to be assessed for a mental health treatment requirement. Roberts, of Aikbank Road, Whitehaven, was granted bail, with conditions not to contact the two named females, not to go to an address in Whitehaven and not to go to the barmaid’s pub in Whitehaven. Roberts, who described himself as a life long Conservative voter, stepped down from his role of major last October for ‘health reasons’. He will be sentenced on May 6.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.
