A stalker who waged a ‘guerrilla war’ against Robbie Williams after convincing himself he inspired the popstar’s iconic Millennium video was jailed for four months for breaching a restraining order.
Sean Stimson, 44, and his brother Wayne, 46, were barred from contacting the superstar’s aides after launching a hate campaign when the 1998 single shot to number one.
The pair believed the 43-year-old singer had nabbed their idea for a Britpop musical and used it for the song’s James Bond-themed video.
They trolled Robbie’s record label along with a solicitors firm they thought represented the star with dozens of nuisance phone calls, screaming swearwords and whistling at baffled staff.
In 2001 High Court judges barred the Stimson brothers from contacting EMI Records, the singer’s business IE: Music and solicitors Harbottle and Lewis.
Sean Stimson, 44, waged a ‘guerrilla war’ against Robbie Williams after convincing himself he inspired the popstar’s iconic Millennium video
Sean Stimson, originally from Middlesbrough, claimed at an earlier hearing: ‘It was a guerrilla war.
‘I never wanted to upset the little people who got in the way but I did make bomb threats.’
He was today jailed for four months at Southwark Crown Court for breaching the restraining order by phoning Harbottle and Lewis nine times between 21 August and 9 September 2015.
That order was imposed at the now-defunct Horseferry Magistrates’ Court in June 2003 barring Stimson from contacting the firm unless through solicitors of his own.
But there have been a number of breaches over subsequent years.
This most recent breach involves nine menacing calls, including four in a single day, made to the firm’s offices.
Telephones at the firm were fitted with a system whereby Stimson’s calls were recognised by staff and filtered through to a dedicated voicemail.
They would then be listened to and transcribed by staff.
The pair believed the 43-year-old singer had nabbed their idea for a Britpop musical and used it for the song’s James Bond-themed video
In a bid to circumvent that system Stimson decided to make out-of-hours calls but these were also picked up eventually.
He even resorted to buying pay-as-you-go mobile phones in order to get around the system before the calls were reported to police.
Prosecutor Jonathan Taylor said: ‘There was a dispute that arose between the defendant and his brother, and the company and the solicitors’ firm in relation to a name of a company which appeared to be linked to a singer for whom this particular law firm were working.
‘But there was actually no such connection. There was allegedly a breach of copyright on their part.’
Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith interjected: ‘Which Mr Stimson still believes in.’
Mr Taylor added: ‘Everything stems from there.’
The court heard Stimson has breached the existing restraining order four times – in 2003, 2010, 2013 going into 2014 and most recently in 2015.
Stimson had initially denied the offence but he has since conceded he had no defence in law after accepting the order was in place and that he then made the calls in question.
Stimson and his brother launched a campaign of hate at Williams after claiming he stole an idea from them for his Millennium video (pictured)
He told a psychiatrist preparing a report for the court: ‘I do it to make a point. It makes them look silly.
‘It’s not doing me any good harassing them so I think I’ll leave them alone and focus on my new television programmes.’
Stimson, who represented himself from the dock, told the court that the firm ‘could have put a stop to this years ago’ by blocking his number sooner.
He added: ‘I can sit and wait for nuclear war with North Korea – then they’ll need propaganda, won’t they?’
Judge Loraine-Smith said the calls were ‘occasionally vulgar, occasionally threatening and often deeply unpleasant’.
‘You told the psychiatrist that you had had enough of this cycle and I very much hope you have for everybody’s sake,’ he said.
‘I hope you have recognised the pointlessness of what you have been doing. That order remains in existence.
‘If you ring them again this cycle will continue and you’ll go on going back to prison and so on.
‘It is fruitless for you and it is extremely unpleasant for them.’
Stimson, of Peterborough, admitted breaching a restraining order and was jailed for four months.