Pensioner stalked woman for 30 years

An elderly man who mounted a military-style operation to stalk Camden Council leader Jane Roberts for nearly 30 years, has been detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act.

Pensioner David Phillips admitted breaching a restraining order preventing him from contacting Ms Roberts at Highbury Corner magistrates court this week.

He continued writing to Ms Roberts, 46, after the order was imposed on 11 September, attended a council meeting where she was present and delivered some letters by hand to her home.

Phillips, now 65, first met Ms Roberts, then 16, when both were working in Labour party offices during the 1973 Greater London Council election campaign. He began writing to her soon after.

In a statement to the court Ms Roberts, who has one son and has lived in Camden for 20 years, said: "It seems that my whole life has been spent either trying to hide from him or suffering his harassment.

"I was destroyed by constantly being kept under surveillance as if it was a military operation by him."