An obsessed 50-year-old woman faces jail after bei
An obsessed 50-year-old woman faces jail after being found guilty today (Tuesday) of ignoring a court order and continuing to harass a handsome solicitor.
The former secretary with City solicitors Masons bombarded a partner with ‘disturbing’ letters over eight years after declaring her ‘love’ for the married man earned her the sack.
It is alleged Judith Atkinson ignored a restraining order not to contact the lawyer, who is believed to be aged in his mid-thirties, by twice corresponding with the father-of-three in January.
At one point the stalking even included a violent incident when she flung pepper in Mark Rowe’s face.
A jury at London’s Southwark Crown Court took just 20 minutes to convict Atkinson twice breaching the order imposed by Thames Magistrates.
Judge Andrew Goymer remanded Atkinson on bail until October 20 when she will be sentenced.
But he warned the offences were so serious a prison sentence would be considered.
It is understood the offence carries a maximum five year jail sentence, and, or, an unlimited fine.
Mr Rowe told the court the first letter told how Atkinson would be at a pub near his home in Islington, north London.
‘It was rather alarming.
One, because it followed the incident when she threw pepper in my face, and secondly, by this time I had read all the letters – some were threatening and said how she was going to do things to me to punish me.
‘I thought she could come around to the house and attack me or my family – I was concerned for my family because I have three young children.
‘
He said he contacted police.
‘I was worried Atkinson might come around and do something unpleasant.
She had already thrown pepper in my face and I was worried she might escalate it in someway and do something to me, my wife or my children.
‘
He said in the second letter Atkinson revealed her father had suffered an accident and so she had not left Lincolnshire – but that too was handed to police.
Atkinson, of (21) Barkings Lane, Langworth, Lincs, denies two offences of contravening a restraining order between January 18 and 26, imposed by Thames Magistrates in March 1999 under the Protection from Harassment Act.
Mr Rowe said Atkinson was employed as a secretary by the firm between 1990 and 1992, although she was not his assistant.
‘I contacted my personnel department after she had written a letter to me, I think more or less saying she was in love with me,’ he told a jury of seven women and five men.
‘I had never spoken to her at that time and I gave the letter to the department and asked them to deal with it as they felt appropriate.
‘
He said Atkinson later came to his office saying she wanted to talk to him.
‘I did not want to talk to her and left and went to security and asked them to deal with the matter.
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As a result Atkinson was sacked.
But Mr Rowe said: ‘After she left my firm’s employment she started to write a series of letters – tens of them.
At first I read them but they were rather distressing in nature and rather strange.
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He continued: ‘They suggested that I was chasing her or trying to follow her or trying to make meetings with her.
They were disturbing, they were odd.
‘I am married, I have children.
It becomes very disturbing after a while.
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Richard Benyon, prosecuting, alleged that Atkinson was dismissed after ignoring a verbal warning not to ‘pester’ the solicitor.
‘It did not stop there because she continued to contact or try to contact Mr Rowe over the next few years.
Matters came to a head when she appeared before Thames Magistrates in February 1999.
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He said the magistrates imposed an order banning Atkinson from contacting directly or indirectly her victim but she penned two letters in January.
When arrested and interviewed, Atkinson claimed she had no intention of contacting Mr Rowe until he contacted her, sending letters in response to his telephone calls.
She also accused the solicitor of driving to Lincolnshire in a ‘sinister’ white transit van to trail her round country lanes – although Mr Rowe told the jury he has never been to the county.
Mr Benyon said the first letter before the jury started: ‘You must be right and I really am the madwoman you tell people I am, mad to trust you again that is.
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She wrote she was prepared to meet at the pub for a last time.
‘The thought of spending three months in Holloway does not compare to the chance of getting my life back on track.
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And in the second letter to Mr Rowe, Atkinson wrote: ‘How on earth can love survive when one person humiliates the other.
.
.
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She said only if Mr Rowe loved her ‘without reservation’ could she trust him again.
‘Love is a woman’s whole existence.
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Atkinson told the court she was no longer in love with the solicitor.
‘I have not loved him for a long time.
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But she said her letter writing was in response to Mr Rowe coming up to Lincolnshire to follow her in the white van, and accused her of constantly ringing her home.
‘For the past eight years I have been deeply depressed, suicidal.
By the end of 1999, I was back to normal.
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Atkinson said she realised by writing the letters she risked going to jail but maintained she had reasonable excuse to do so.
‘He keeps dangling this carrot in front of my nose, that maybe one day I will get back everything I lost,’ she said.
She said losing her job had cost her London home and health.
Asked what she wanted back, she replied: ‘Money.
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