Inadvertently renting your vacation house to the person who’s stalking you might be a plot from a Hollywood horror movie.
When police burst into the property, they discover the obsessive has fled, however a stool sitting beneath a skylight within the loft appears to point out he was there to gap up and spy on his goal’s home subsequent door.
Removed from a fiction author’s fantasy, that is the chilling scene that met This Morning star Fern Britton and the law enforcement officials tasked with defending her within the quaint Cornwall city the place she settled in 2020.
On Tuesday, the complete particulars of Miss Britton’s ordeal by the hands of fixated fan James Haviland, 63, resulted in a choose banning him from all the county for a decade.
Haviland pleaded responsible to stalking the previous This Morning presenter
James Haviland, 63, arrives at Basingstoke Magistrates Courtroom in Hampshire
He was handed a a ten-year restraining order
At Basingstoke Magistrates Courtroom, prosecutors described how Haviland’s marketing campaign of stalking started in November 2021 by sending Miss Britton ‘undesirable flowers’ and playing cards however escalated throughout two years, main the TV star to concern what his ‘finish sport’ was.
Haviland had first despatched a bunch of pink roses – named ‘Love Letter’ – with an unnerving card which mentioned ‘I believe you’re wonderful’, with an additional notice inside saying: ‘You might be stunning, hold secure, hold smiling. PS I’m certain you get this factor on a regular basis.’
The 63-year-old then made an order for a bunch of Get Effectively Quickly flowers costing £57 in June 2022 however he didn’t full the order.
However in June 2023 he once more despatched flowers and a card which mentioned ‘Effectively Achieved on Your Working’ adopted a month later with much more flowers, this time with a birthday card which learn: ‘Completely satisfied Birthday, Completely satisfied Birthday, hope you will have an ideal day’ and signed ‘Jim’ with a kiss.
By this time, Miss Britton had came upon the identify of her disturbed admirer from the florist in query.
However she couldn’t have recognized that he had already been making the four-hour drive from his Hampshire house, to remain as close to as attainable to the Large Brother star’s picturesque Cornwall house.
It was in September 2023 that he pushed boundaries additional by renting Miss Britton’s personal vacation house, which gave him a ‘private view of [her] backyard’.
When popping over to see if he was having fun with his keep, it then dawned on the much-loved presenter that ‘she recognised his face’, presumably from seeing him lurking within the space beforehand.
The stalker effused ‘about rebooking however subsequent time, bringing his cycle and taking good photos’ however Miss Britton knew one thing was unsuitable, earlier than realising this was the identical man beneath whose identify the floral deluge had been despatched to her.
She known as the police however by the point they received to the cottage, Haviland had gone.
Disturbingly, they found he had been sleeping within the loft room, quite than the main bedroom, and had positioned a stool beneath an opened skylight which neglected the TV star’s house.
On his cellphone it was later found that he had screenshotted a tweet that Miss Britton had made, and had obtained ‘a photograph of Ms Britton with somebody, however the another person was lower or cropped out of the {photograph},’.
In a sufferer influence assertion learn to the courtroom, Miss Britton mentioned with attribute bravery: ‘It is worrying, I would love him to cease earlier than he does extra.
‘There’s a level after I know that is inappropriate and I am asking myself what’s his finish sport right here.
‘Final night time for instance I did not sleep nicely, I’ve been worrying about it and I am contemplating my private security.’
Britton mentioned she moved to Cornwall to ‘get away from any such degree of recognition and intrusion’ and as a substitute needed to reside by herself ‘writing and having fun with life’.
‘I don’t need to be hyper-vigilant once more – I’m not a celebration one that goes out to showbiz occasions,’ she continued.
‘I’m entitled to reside a life that’s nice, pleasurable, and freed from fear.’
Representing the stalker, Ed Stott advised the courtroom that Haviland ‘understands the way it appears’ and the way he understands that it seems ‘very sinister’.
The courtroom heard Haviland labored till 2017 earlier than he retired and located himself ‘within the neighborhood’ of her tackle in November 2021 and crossed paths with Britton there – which he claimed was a ‘coincidence’.
‘Then, shortly after that, he has a star crush – he acted on that in he describes as an escapist sort of method and sends her flowers shortly afterwards’ Mr Stott added.
He advised the courtroom that Haviland is married to a psychiatric nurse and can be a eager photographer who was working in the direction of a royal images society accreditation.
‘He desires these issues over and finished with and has finished all the things he can to expedite issues,’ he added.
Mr Stott added that Haviland, a married father, had positioned a stool by the Velux window as a result of he needed to open it and denied that he had been following Ms Britton.
He mentioned Haviland claimed he had first seen Miss Britton in November 2021 whereas taking pictures in north Cornwall for his portfolio which he had been engaged on since he retired in 2017.
He continued: ‘He’s embarrassed by his behaviour and he’s devastated with the impact it has had on his household.’
Fern Britton and Phillip Schofield made a much-loved duo
The pair dominated daytime TV
Miss Britton can be a profitable creator
However after pleading responsible to stalking, District Choose Stephen Apted advised Haviland: ‘You had change into obsessed together with your sufferer and it is clear from her sufferer private assertion that your behaviour has prompted her misery and nervousness’.
He added: ‘That marketing campaign took the type of sending undesirable flowers and playing cards to Miss Britton’s house tackle, discovering out the place she lived, staying in the identical village, making bookings for stays in her vacation cottage.
‘You will have clearly been capable of determine her vacation house and whilst you had been in it you selected to make use of one of many rooms that over appeared Miss Britton’s personal house.’
In addition to a ten-year restraining order, the defendant was handed a 12-month neighborhood order and ordered to undertake 150 hours of unpaid work and pay a £114 sufferer surcharge and £85 courtroom prices.
Haviland, from Chineham, Basingstoke, had earlier beforehand pleaded responsible to stalking with out inflicting concern, alarm or misery, between November 20 2021, and September 16 2023.
The Superstar Large Brother star solely moved to Cornwall from Buckinghamshire in 2020 after she break up together with her TV chef husband, Phil Vickery
The presenter – who has additionally penned a sequence of extremely profitable books – mentioned the transfer had helped her heal after 20 years of marriage, and her dad and mom passing away.
