Gardener convicted for stalking ITV News presenter Isla Traquair

Gardener who became obsessed when ITV News presenter Isla Traquair moved in next door is convicted of stalking after climbing wall to get into her house and offer her a sandwich

• Jonathan Barrett, 53, ‘terrorised’ Isla Traquair, 42, after she moved in next door
• He stalked her for seven months – staring into bedroom of her Cotswolds cottage
• Ex-ITV and C5 news presenter spent thousands on security but fled her home
• ‘Infatuated’ Wiltshire stalker was handed restraining order by magistrates today

Jonathan Barrett (pictured), 53, was convicted of stalking former ITV news presenter Isla Traquair

A gardener ‘infatuated’ ITV News presenter Isla Traquair after she moved in next door was convicted of stalking today.

Jonathan Barrett, 53, ‘terrorised’ the former ITV and Channel 5 news presenter for seven months, even climbing over her garden wall and entering her house to offer a sandwich.

Isla Traquair, 42, suffered nightmares and panic attacks due to Barrett’s stalking between March and September last year after moving into her idyllic 1700s country cottage, on the outskirts of the Cotswolds.

The journalist became so terrified of her obsessive stalker that she spent thousands of pounds fortifying her home with fences and security cameras before eventually fleeing her home in the small Wiltshire town of Corsham.

‘I can’t live in my home,’ she said during the three day trial. She has still not returned in almost a year.

She broke down in tears while giving evidence, saying: ‘It has affected every part of my life. I can’t live in my home, I have had to stay with friends on their couches.

‘There were periods of time I moved away and hoped the police would have another word with him.’

She added: ‘I have had nightmares, it’s affected my relationships… When I was in the house I barely went out at all because I was scared I would see him.

‘I have panic attacks, I would wake in the middle of the night. Even if I saw a white van, because that’s what he drives, that would set me off.

‘I was scared of him, I wanted to avoid him at all costs, his behaviour was frightening to me.

‘I left my home and I honestly just tried to bury all this. It breaks my heart I can’t live in my own home.’

Ms Traquair, originally from Aberdeen, recently worked on the Oprah Winfrey Network in the United States and released a true crime podcast ‘The Storyteller: Violent Delights’.

‘I have had nightmares, it’s affected my relationships… When I was in the house I barely went out at all because I was scared I would see him,’ Isla Traquair (pictured) said of her stalking by neighbour Jonathan Barrett

 ‘I have panic attacks, I would wake in the middle of the night. Even if I saw a white van, because that’s what he drives, that would set me off,’ Ms Traquair told the court

Today, Thursday July 7, at Salisbury Magistrates Court Barrett shook his head as he was convicted of stalking his next door neighbour, told his behaviour amounted to harassment and was banned from peering into her property.

Magistrate Mina Searles said: ‘We do find you guilty. We find that you pursued a course of conduct that caused alarm and distress.

‘We found Ms Traquair to be a credible witness… In terms of your evidence, we found inconsistencies which demonstrated an obsession and infatuation with [Ms Traquair] over a fairly significant period.

‘Regarding the sandwich incident, you talked about Ms Traquair’s energies “flagging” by the end of the day.

‘The only conclusion we can draw from this is that you were obsessed and you were watching her.

‘On the standing and staring into her property over quite a lot of different times, including when the camera was installed… we find this was loitering and harassment.’

Barrett will be sentenced later this month but was handed an immediate restraining order to not contact Ms Traquair or enter or look into her property for one year.

Mrs Searles, who was chair of a two magistrate bench, added: ‘I can see you are shaking your head, but you must adhere to that. Any breach of a restraining order is very serious, I must warn you.’

Ms Traquair, originally from Aberdeen, used to present ITV and Channel 5 news. She has recently worked on the Oprah Winfrey Network in the United States and released a true crime podcast ‘The Storyteller: Violent Delights’

Alicia Doble, prosecuting, previously told the three day trial: ‘(Ms Traquair) is a journalist, a relatively well known journalist, and it seems when she moved in Mr Barrett took an interest in her and in her life.

‘He admits to looking her up when she moved in and seemed to know facts about her she didn’t tell him.

‘Over the coming months he became obsessed with her. He would loiter outside her house, look through windows, stand on her wall and look into her conservatory.’

Barrett denied stalking or harassing his neighbour, even claiming she had become ‘fixated’ on him.

When he was arrested in July he told officers Ms Traquair he had researched her online after she moved in and that she was ‘petty’ and had ‘divorced a wealthy man who runs a hire company up in Scotland’ and ‘because of her job, she knew which buttons to press with the police’.

He told the court his interest in her was not abnormal, he had not been trying to see into her home and he had simply glimpsed a photo of her naked when she had shown him her mobile phone.

He said: ‘I have never ever seen her naked. The only time was when she showed me her paintings on her mobile phone and there was a picture of her naked which she scrolled past.’

Barrett, who lives in a £380,000 one bed semi-detached home next to Ms Traquair’s in the village of Kingsdown, was found guilty of stalking at Salisbury Magistrates Court (pictured)

He claimed she had become ‘disturbed’ from working on her true crime podcast, something he admitted knowing about her because he researched her life on Wikipedia.

‘I know she was telling true crime murder stories and I think seeking out stories that send chills down people’s spines has become a fixation for her that she lives on, that fear.’

Barrett, who lives in a £380,000 one bed semi-detached home next to Ms Traquair’s in the village of Corsham, Wiltshire, was convicted of one charge of stalking.

Magistrates found three incidents did not happen – following her to a farm shop, watching her through her conservatory window washing at 7am, and banging on the outside of her home in September which made her flee.

Barrett will be sentenced at Salisbury Magistrates Court on August 18.

Source: Read Full Article