Emily Maitlis, the BBC and Newsnight presenter, suffered “considerable stress” and feared for her safety and that of her family after receiving letters from a former Cambridge University friend who had already been jailed for harassing her, a court heard.
Edward Vines, 46, met Maitlis when they were both students at Queens’ College in the 1990s. “They were friends while they were there and, at some stage, Mr Vines fell in love with Emily Maitlis, a love it seems she did not return,” a jury was told.
“Thereafter it seems their friendship broke down. You won’t hear the details from Miss Maitlis’s side but it seems to have developed into an obsession with her until the present day,” Julian Lynch, prosecuting, told Oxford crown court. It was an obsession that had “ultimately lead to a number of criminal offences”, he added.
Vines, accompanied in the dock by three nurses, denies two counts of breaching a restraining order without reasonable excuse by writing two letters to Maitlis at her BBC address last year, and of emailing and writing two letters to her mother, Marion, a psychotherapist.
In his first “long and rambling” letter to her, Vines accused Maitlis of lying about his harassing her, of exaggerating her account and of committing perjury. He claimed also to have suicidal thoughts, the jury heard.
The court was told Vines’ behaviour had seen him jailed for four months for harassing Maitlis in 2002, and court appearances for breaching a restraining order in 2008, when he was made the subject of a hospital order, and in 2010 and 2013 when he was given suspended sentences. In 2014 he served four months for a further breach. He is currently awaiting sentencing after admitting two further counts on 22 August 2016, the jury heard.
The letters centred around Vines’ belief he had been the subject of a miscarriage of justice and his wish to fully resolve why Maitlis had acted “scornfully” towards him after he told her her loved her while in their second term at Cambridge.
There was “no dispute” Vines had written the letters and emails, said Lynch. The question for the jury was had he had “reasonable excuse”.
In a brief written statement to the court Maitlis, a mother-of-two, who did not appear in person, said the letters, which she had immediately passed to BBC security without reading, had caused her “considerable stress and makes me worry about my safety and that of my family”.
The court heard that after Maitlis had distanced herself from Vines he had continued to write, had turned up at her work place on one occasion and at her home address on another.
Reading aloud the first letter, Lynch said it was “long and rambling and ultimately goes to show it’s a long-term obsession”.
In it Vines claimed Maitlis had lied in 2002 when she told a court she had distanced herself from him after he declared his love. He claimed she had remained friendly with him for three months after that and had been “friendly and affectionate” to him in letters at the time.
He also claimed Maitlis had lied when she gave evidence that he had written her around 50 letters in the 25 years since they met and that the truth was he had written “23 in total” and that they were not “threatening and bullying”.
He also stated Maitlis had only reported Vines for harassment at the time of the murder of TV presenter Jill Dando.
Vines claimed he and his therapist had examined two letters and a postcard from Maitlis. Vines believed her treatment of him was due to the fact she was attracted to him and was dismayed he had not made the romantic overtures she had expected because he was too frigid.
In his second letter to Maitlis, Vines wrote asking to meet to resolve the “resentment”. “No way I will give up as this matter affects me on a daily basis.” He added: “I am thinking of committing suicide.”
In an email to Maitlis’s mother, Marion Maitlis, he expressed his wish to talk to her daughter. “I need to speak to her if I’m to lead my life in peace and prosper,” he wrote. In a letter he told her mother he would continue to write “no matter how many times I have to go the prison”. He also enclosed a letter to be passed on to her daughter, the court heard.
When interviewed by police, Vines told officers he did not believe he was guilty of harassment. He said he had “caved in” and pleaded guilty in 2002 because of an enormous amount of media pressure. In 2008, he told officers, he had been psychotic and not fit to plead.
He said the letters were “a last resort”. He had tried to complain about his conviction to the criminal case review board but was refused because he had pleaded guilty, he told officers. He also claimed that police had lost a file that he had allegedly handed to them in 2013 accusing Maitlis of perjury.
He told officers he had a “reasonable excuse” for sending the letters as he had “no legal avenues to seek to achieve justice”.
Vines, 45, faces two counts of breaching a restraining order. It is alleged that between 10 May 2015 and 26 June 2015 without reasonable excuse he sent letters to Maitlis, which he was prohibited from doing by a restraining order imposed at Oxford crown court on 26 January 2009. It is also alleged that between the same dates and without reasonable excuse he contacted Maitlis’s mother, Marion, by sending her emails and letters, which he was prohibited from doing under the same restraining order.
The case continues.
- This article was amended on 5 September 2016 to correct the spelling of Queens’ College.
