A maths tutor who stalked a woman by hiring a private investigator to follow and photograph her and trying to install covert cameras in her neighbour’s garden has been spared jail.
Former Merchant Navy sailor Graham Steed, 68, stalked and harassed the shop worker, who is in her 40s, for nearly two years.
He came so ‘infatuated’ and ‘obsessed’ with the mother of a child he had been employed to help with her GCSEs.
He left ‘deeply strange’ laminated notes in Stephanie Keeble’s shop in Bishop’s Waltham before sending letters to her and her husband.
Steed hired a private investigator to take photographs of Mrs Keeble, including shots of her with a man she was having an extramarital affair with, Winchester Crown Court heard.
Graham Steed pictured at the time of writing his first novel, titled Cruso the Navigator
The photographs were sent to Mrs Keeble’s husband and to the man’s wife, and letters of complaint were sent to their employers, leading to the man losing his job.
Judge Jane Miller QC described him as an ‘intimacy-seeking stalker’ and showed ‘obsessive and weird behaviour, all sorts of strong things said’.
She added: ‘You represent a high risk of stalking to women.’
Steed, of Romsey, Hampshire, pleaded guilty to stalking and was sentenced to 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years. He was also ordered to attend a stalking clinic, carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and was issued with a restraining order.
In a letter sent by Steed to Mrs Keeble, he tried to explain his actions by saying: ‘It’s a man thing. If a man feels he has upset a woman he feels affection for, he wants to put things right.’
Steed left ‘deeply strange’ laminated notes in Stephanie Keeble’s shop in Bishop’s Waltham before sending letters to her and her husband
Steed, who is also the carer of his wife of 30 years and previously worked as a social worker, also wrote: ‘You are still young, vibrant and a handsome woman, so please be careful in all things. Your glasses look so cute xx Perhaps bump into you one day.’
Mrs Keeble has since split from her husband and now lives in fear of Steed’s unwanted attention, has difficulties sleeping at night and has lost weight from anxiety.
She told police: ‘I felt physically sick by his presence. I am absolutely terrified by Mr Steed, I can’t sleep, he is a predator, I don’t know what his intentions are but they are sinister. He makes my blood run cold.
‘He strikes me as a Jekyll and Hyde character projecting the front of an elderly and kind gentleman while actually he is a lonely and controlling man.’
Adrienne Knight, defending, said: ‘He is really sorry for what happened and ashamed of himself. He is a really charming, caring man when he is not infatuated by someone.’