‘Obsessed’ patient who stalked dentist with ‘murder kit’ jailed for breaching restraining order
Tom Baddeley created ‘sinister’ document showing ‘at the very least there was a plan to cause substantial harm’
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Your support makes all the difference.An “obsessed” man who went to prison for stalking his dentist with a “murder kit” has been jailed again for following his victim just months after his release.
Tom Baddeley, 42, secretly followed orthodontist Ian Hutchinson, 52, with a car boot full of weapons capable of causing “serious harm” – including a crossbow, a knife, bleach and plastic sheeting – and kept detailed surveillance logs of Dr Hutchinson’s movements spanning four years.
Baddeley, who was a patient of Dr Hutchinson in Bristol between 2012 and 2016, created a “sinister” document counting down to something he referred to as “The Event”.
Further details of the document were not specified, but a judge said Baddeley’s notes meant, “at the very least there was a plan to cause him [Dr Hutchinson] substantial harm, if not to end his life”.
Baddeley was handed an indefinite restraining order after he pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon, possession of a bladed article and stalking in August.
He was sentenced to 16 months in prison but was released from custody the very same day because of the time he had spent on remand, unbeknownst to his victim.
Baddeley was then spotted approaching The Smile Lounge, one of Dr Hutchinson’s dental clinics in Chepstow, just two months later on 7 October.
He was sentenced to two years in prison on Thursday and told any further breach of the restraining order carried a term of five years’ imprisonment.
A victim impact statement read out in court heard how Dr Hutchinson had been left with mental health problems and forced to change his lifestyle and routines in fear of what Baddeley would do.
“I struggle to sleep at night, and I’m constantly looking over my shoulder for things that seem out of place,” he said.
Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke said pre-sentence reports compiled for him “lead me to the conclusion it will be quite some time before your obsession with Dr Hutchinson subsides”.
Additional reporting by Press Association