Stalker driving instructor jailed after breaking restraining order

Fifty-three-year-old Graham Mansie was given a 20-month jail term and is subject to an indefinite restraining order.

Graham Mansie (Handout/PA)

An “infatuated” driving instructor has been jailed after he broke a restraining order just nine days after it was imposed and drove more than 200 miles to see a former pupil he had been stalking.

Obsessed Graham Mansie, 53, from Beckenham, Kent, admitted breaching a restraining order by travelling from south London to York where his victim Maisie Relph, 19, was studying.

Mansie took blades with him and a flatmate of Ms Relph spotted him at 11.20pm sitting under a tree outside their campus accommodation on May 27 this year.

University security and the police attended and found him sobbing and saw he had been self-harming, inflicting superficial cuts.

This happened just nine days after magistrates in Bromley, Kent, had handed the driving instructor a two-month jail sentence, suspended for a year, for stalking her.

Judge Simon Hickey, sitting at York Crown Court, jailed him for 20 months and imposed an indefinite restraining order, warning him the sentence for any future breach would be measured in years, not months.

The defendant had become “infatuated” with the teenager when he was teaching her to drive, the judge said.

Ms Relph made a victim statement in court, saying: “This crime has impacted me both emotionally and psychologically.”

The student said the stress of being stalked has led her to be diagnosed with severe anorexia and she was undergoing therapy.

“I think about what has happened every day, constantly worried and paranoid about what could happen,” she said.

“I thought things genuinely could not get any worse after the previous incidents. However, when Mr Mansie breaks a legal order just nine days after sentencing, it leaves me to question if this will ever end.”

She said he was “obsessed” and him driving from south London left her “gobsmacked”.

“I am now a 19-year-old who is battling a severe mental illness and having to live with a 53-year-old stalker, whilst trying to get a degree,” the psychology student told the court.

Giles Bridge, prosecuting, said Ms Relph had been a pupil of Mansie’s and he had initially behaved appropriately, but he came to describe her as his “favourite” and set up social media accounts about her.

Mansie gave gifts for her to another student, then outlined his “strong” feelings in a long text message.

Her mother replied, telling him not to teach Ms Relph any more and to seek help.

But Mansie persisted and joined a WhatsApp group for her Halls of Residence in York and drove up to the campus in October last year, but did not enter her accommodation.

He was arrested and charged with stalking, for which he was handed the suspended sentence in May, but ignored the terms of the restraining order and traumatised her and her flatmates by turning up in York the following week.

After he was arrested in May, Mansie told police that news and social media coverage of his case led him to go to York with the intention of killing himself.

Graham Parkin, defending Mansie, who appeared via a prison videolink, said his client was withdrawn and isolated and he had pleaded guilty to breaching the restraining order and possessing a blade at the first opportunity.

Ms Relph was supported in court by around 10 friends and after the hearing she thanked them, her university and the police for their support.

She said: “Hopefully now he (Mansie) will learn his lesson.

“I think I can now get my life back on track and enjoy university.”

After the case, Detective Constable Michelle Neighbour of North Yorkshire Police’s dedicated Stalking Support Team, said: “We’re pleased with today’s sentence and hope that it gives Maisie and her family and friends the reassurance that they can safely carry on with their lives, now that Mansie is behind bars.

“Having someone, who is ordered by the court to stay away from you, brazenly break that order within days and pursue you across the country is a terrifying experience.

“Maisie has been amazingly brave throughout this investigation and has remained committed to working with us over the past three months to ensure justice is served.

“She was determined to stand up in court today to read her Victim Personal Statement, so she could talk about the devastating impact this experience has had on her life.”