Emily Maitlis stalker admits breaching restraining order

A prisoner who stalked Emily Maitlis for more than 25 years has admitted sending a letter to be passed on to the BBC Newsnight presenter.

Edward Vines told Nottingham crown court on Thursday that he had attempted to breach a restraining order.

The defendant, who is serving a second jail sentence for continuing to contact Maitlis and her family members, was described by Judge Stuart Rafferty QC as having a long-term fixation with the journalist.

Vines pleaded not guilty in September to breaching the order imposed on him in 2009 for harassing Maitlis.

He attempted to write a letter to her mother, Marion Maitlis, between 7 and 16 May last year – despite being prohibited from doing so without reasonable excuse.

About a month after appearing in court he attempted to write a second letter to Marion Maitlis on 6 October. Vines, who appeared via video link from HMP Nottingham, will be sentenced on 3 February.

He was jailed for 45 months in January 2018 for breaching the restraining order by writing to Maitlis from his bail hostel and prison. He had previously been jailed in 2016 for the same offence.

The presenter had met and had a brief friendship with the defendant when they were both studying at Cambridge University in the mid-90s.

After his most recent jail sentence was passed, the Newsnight presenter said in a victim impact statement she had been left feeling “scared and let down” after Vines was able to continue harassing her despite being in prison.

At the same hearing in 2018, Judge Peter Ross demanded written explanations from the probation service and the governor at HMP Bullingdon in Oxfordshire as to how Vines had been able to continue his offending, describing it as a “scandal”.

Mailtis later said in a BBC Radio 5 Live interview that she feared Vines would never stop harassing her, likening the decades of harassment she had experienced to having a chronic illness.