'˜Creepy' patient who stalked physiotherapist is banned from St Mary's in Portsmouth

Alan Brailsford, 73, sent his victim and her dog a Christmas card, made her a ‘pop-up scene box’ and wrote her a ‘chilling’ letter detailing how he stalked a bank clerk 18 years ago.

One-legged Brailsford had been on a course of physio with the woman at the re-ablement service at St Mary’s Treatment Centre after losing his left leg.

But Portsmouth Crown Court heard he became ‘utterly menacing’ from December 22 last year, besieging the centre with 26 calls in a few weeks and requesting his own medical records — all in a bid to discover her surname and address.

It is thought to be the first case in the county where a patient has stalked NHS staff.

The court heard Brailsford did find out the woman’s surname after the CPS disclosed the name.

Warned by NHS security and police to stop, Brailsford, of Dryden Close, Waterlooville, carried on after being arrested and bailed – waiting for the victim as she emerged from work on April 21.

Quizzed by police the pensioner said ‘she wants him to contact her, she wants his contact, wants him to find out where she lives and just that management is getting in the way,’ prosecutor Daniel Sawyer said.

Brailsford, who was convicted of harassing his own step-daughter when he was 65, also told cops ‘because she’s a woman she could not possibly be so forward as to give (her address)’.

He told NHS workers he ‘likes a challenge’ and ‘sees it as a problem-solving exercise’. The pensioner had turned up to St Mary’s saying he wanted to ‘adopt’ his victim, who is in her 30s.

Brailsford later told probation he ‘may as well carry on’ because ‘he’s put in a lot of effort,’ Mr Sawyer said.

‘He will only accept what everyone says about him if she meets him face-to-face,’ Mr Sawyer added.

And in a letter to the victim, read out in court, he told how, 18 years ago, he harassed a young female bank cashier, going through 200 names in the phone book to find her mother.

As the details were read out, Brailsford said ‘oh yeah I did that’ from the dock.

But the pensioner was left in open-mouthed shock when, as the judge sentenced him to a life-time restraining order banning him from the St Mary’s campus, he was passed a letter in the dock telling him all his treatment had now been moved to Brighton.

In a victim statement the woman said at no stage had she told him she wanted any form of relationship or friendship.

She said: ‘He’s no different to any other patient and never been given any special treatment. I find his behaviour creepy, it has freaked me out, he does not take no for an answer.

‘I’ve been caused anxiety, I understand that he now knows personal information about me and tried to find out my last name, I do not know what I will do if he find out and turns up at my address.’

Sentencing, Recorder Tim Rose said: ‘You began a campaign of utterly unwanted contact on (the woman), completely misunderstanding or deliberately misunderstanding the professional relationship that she had with you, and believing for reasons of your own, which I dare hardly imagine what was going on inside your head at the time, started to imagine that you could have some sort of personal relationship with her — and you wouldn’t take no for an answer.

‘You weren’t violent nor threatened violence but you became completely and utterly menacing.’

He said the OAP had shown a ‘breathtaking lack of personal responsibility’, and told cops he could do what he wanted.

The judge imposed a 16-week jail term suspended for two years with 25 rehabilitation days, and a life-time restraining order. It bans him from contacting the woman, trying to find out her details and from going to the St Mary’s campus.

Mitigating, Robert Harding said his client posed ‘no physical risk’ and said: ‘The defendant was barely able to get up the stairs.’

Brailsford admitted stalking and was sentenced on Thursday.