Irvine son held on stalking charges

The son of Lord Chancellor Derry Irvine is today being held in a high-security American prison charged with stalking a girl and threatening to shoot her boyfriend. Alastair Irvine, 25, is awaiting trial in Orange County, California, on seven charges following his arrest nearly six weeks ago. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years' imprisonment.

He is accused of stalking 19-year-old Nicole Healy, threatening to kill or seriously injure her boyfriend Karel Taska, carrying a concealed handgun, damaging Mr Taska's vehicle, and damaging a neighbour's car.

Public school-educated Irvine, who had been sent to the US by his parents to be treated for addiction to crack cocaine and his habitual use of cannabis, is also charged with receiving a stolen purse, wallet and cheque book and breaking into a Mercedes car.

The Lord Chancellor's office has issued a statement saying: "Alastair's family are supporting him for his numerous problems as they always have. Beyond that they have nothing to say about Alastair's personal problems. The US legal process must take its course in the normal way."

Irvine, whose 62-year-old father is one of Tony Blair's closest advisers and Britain's most senior legal officer, appeared in court on Monday and was allowed £64,000 bail on the criminal charges, but remanded in custody because of alleged visa irregularities.

He is due to stand trial before Judge Ronald Kreber in Santa Ana Central Court when, according to his US lawyer Edward Marshall Moses, he is expected to deny the allegations.

Irvine is said to have become obsessed with Miss Healy, a management student, after meeting her at a tanning centre in Newport Beach, California.

The former pupil of the City of London School showered her with expensive gifts, including a Rolex watch. When she rejected his advances and her boyfriend 6ft 5in, 15-stone American footballer Mr Taska, also 19, warned him to stay away from her, Irvine is said by police to have set about terrorising them. On 6 June it is alleged he damaged Mr Taska's white Dodge Ram pick-up with acid. Seven days later, it is claimed he turned up at the tanning centre, where both Miss Healy and Mr Taska worked, with a handgun strapped to his waistband.

According to the police, Mr Taska was not there but Irvine allegedly told other attendants that Mr Taska should stop "harassing" him. He is also said to have admitted the acid attack on the Dodge.

Miss Healy and Mr Taska became so scared that they moved house, abandoned their courses at Orange County California University and left their jobs. Irvine was arrested by police on 21 June. When officers searched his apartment they allegedly found acid which matched that thrown over the Dodge. They also claim to have discovered information in relation to burglary and stolen property charges.

Tori Richards, spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney's Office, said: "I can confirm that Alastair Irvine is currently in jail on various charges.The offences are so serious that he could be jailed for 15 years if a jury finds him guilty.

"Mr Irvine is accused of stalking a woman, threatening to kill her boyfriend Karel Taska, and carrying a concealed weapon. He is further charged with vandalism after pouring a chemical over two cars."

Court records show that Irvine was undergoing outpatient treatment for drug dependency, but Mr Taska testified: "He didn't seem drugged when he came in."

Mr Taska says that after about two weeks Irvine "started being a nuisance to my girlfriend, telling her he was a professional kick-boxer. Then she told me he had been stalking her. He'd just come in and stare at her. Just sit there on the bench and then leave. She was terrified."

Irvine's psychiatrist Dr Suzie Schuder said in her court report that he was suffering from depression and post traumatic stress disorder. She said he has a morbid fear of dying prematurely and experiences nightmares, sleeplessness, anxiety and, tellingly for someone who has failed to match his father's shining example, "feelings of worthlessness".

Lord Irvine has brought up four children, Alastair and David by his wife Alison, plus her son and daughter from her first marriage to the late Donald Dewar. Last year he complained to the Press Complaints Commission after a newspaper revealed Alastair was a crack addict.

Alastair, described as academically "run of the mill" by one of his former teachers, is said to have begun experimenting with cannabis in his teens and to have begun using cocaine at 19 or 20. Last April, Lord Irvine became increasingly concerned for his son's health and sent him to a private clinic in California in the hope he could be freed of his addiction. After six months it appears he had begun to make good progress and could often be seen walking his dog in the fields near the clinic.

Some time during last winter he left his flat in San Diego and moved 90 miles north to Newport Beach where he rented an apartment in a gated complex, La Residencia.

One old friend today hinted at the pressures Irvine feels as the son of a famous and brilliant father. He said: "He never wanted people to know who his family were - that was his biggest problem."