Jail warning for serial harasser from Ottery

A serial harasser has been warned she will go to jail if she makes any further attempt to contact a businessman over a long running family court dispute.

Carol Wheeler is banned by a restraining order from contacting Philip Colemon but has continued breaking it by sending texts or voice mails.

She is at risk of jail because she carried on her harassment after being let off with a suspended sentence for six earlier breaches of the order last year.

Wheeler, aged 44, of Longdogs Close, Ottery St Mary, admitted a new case of harassment when she appeared at Exeter Crown Court.

This puts her in breach of a six month suspended sentence imposed at the same court in April last year.

Recorder Mr James Freeman adjourned her case for a new probation report but warned her she will go straight to jail if there are any more breaches of the restraining order.

He said: “You know you have got to obey the orders of the court but you have disobeyed them on several occasions. Allied to the breach of the restraining order, there is a breach of a suspended sentence.

“I am going to give you a final chance to see if you can work with the probation service. The restraining order runs until 2019 and you could be liable of a sentence of up to five years if you breach any of its terms.”

Mr Gareth Evans, prosecuting, said the restraining order was imposed in April 2014 but there were a series of breaches which led to a suspended sentence in April 2016.

He said Wheeler sent Mr Colemon 11 text messages, three calls, and two voicemails between February and April this year.

They did not contain threats but caused Mr Colemon concern because he was worried she may make further contact with him.

Mr Warren Robinson, defending, said it would be unjust to activate the suspended sentence because the messages had been sent in the final weeks of its currency. The messages were innocuous in themselves and different from the offensive ones sent previously.

He said Wheeler has been working with her GP and is keen to receive help from the probation service to prevent further offending.

In the previous case she broke a restraining order by contacting Mr Colemon six times over the space of 13 months by sending him e-mails, texts or voicemails.

She also used a mobile phone to film him as he was shopping at the Ottery St Mary branch of Sainsbury with a young child.

Wheeler joined a breakaway branch of the pressure group New Fathers 4 Justice and took part in a protest at the Oxfordshire home of former Prime Minister David Cameron during her protest campaign.