Colchester: 71-year-old stalker jailed

A man in his 70s has been jailed for more than two-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to stalking and breaching his court order.

Christopher Allen, of The Walk in Eight Ash Green, has now been convicted of stalking three times, and on this occasion breached the terms of a full Stalking Protection Order after repeatedly following young women around Witham and Colchester in June this year.

Allen was spending more than 12 hours a day offering them gifts and making unwanted, unreciprocated sexual comments.

These women quickly reported his offences to us and on 2 July he was arrested at his address on suspicion of stalking, breaching the conditions of a suspended sentence, and two counts of breaching his SPO. He pleaded guilty to all offences at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court the next day.

He has now been sentenced to:

• 15 months in custody for breaching the conditions of his suspended sentence
• 8 months in custody for stalking
• 4 months and 10 weeks for two breaches of a Stalking Protection Order

All these sentences will run consecutively.

'Thank you for trusting us'

Detective Sergeant Daniel Sorrell, of the Proactive Order Enforcement Team (POET), said:

“I’d like to thank the young women in this case for trusting us and quickly telling us about Allen’s offending.
“Their accounts and the work of POET mean a dangerous man is off the streets of Essex.
“Despite repeatedly engaging with Allen and his previous convictions, he continued to offend and left the judge with no choice but to send him to prison.
“Before this he had previously breached the terms of both a suspended sentence and an interim SPO, and already served a shorter prison sentence.
“This is why our officers are currently working with the courts to secure tighter restrictions for him on his release, and we will continue working with our partners in the community to detect and prevent this offending in the future.”

'We will put you before the courts'

Constable Joseph Warne of POET added:

“This is a great outcome following a fast-paced investigation which resulted in Allen's arrest, charge, remand and sentence.
“Allen is a high-risk stalking perpetrator whose SPO is managed by POET.
“Allen has previously been convicted for stalking offences but continued to flout his SPO and suspended sentence. He will now be serving his custodial sentence behind bars.
“SPOs are in place to protect the public and manage the risk posed by stalking perpetrators. Breach an SPO and you can expect out team to put you before the courts.”

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