Man who once threatened to pour acid over ex handed hospital order

A pensioner who has repeatedly harassed his ex-partner, having made her life a misery with his threats and intimidation, has been placed under the care of a secure hospital after he was deemed to be suffering increasingly from dementia.

Barry Cottell of Notte Street, Plymouth, was arrested by police after he again breached a restraining order put in place in 2019, updated in 2021, by stalking and harassing his former partner.

During his court hearing in 2019 it was explained that Cottell, who is now 71, threatened to throw a bucket of acid over the woman during a four-month campaign of harassment. He also bombarded her with phone calls and repeatedly turned up at the home she shared with their three children.

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In a statement to the court in 2019 she compared him "to a Dementor, he sucks the energy from the house." Dementors are ghostly creatures from Harry Potter books which consume human happiness and create an atmosphere of chilly misery. The court was told that he had breached a 20-month suspended prison sentence for assaulting their adult son with a knife in 2017.

The breach in 2019 saw him jailed for 20 months having caused his former partner "considerable distress". The judge at that hearing told Cottell he had committed "persistent harassment over a long period and it persisted in spite of warnings from police and the probation service."

Cottell appeared at Plymouth Crown Court today after he admitted to breaching and indefinite restraining order which was imposed on him in 2021 which banned him from contacting the woman and of going into Efford Lane.

Judge Peter Johnson noted that on December 5, 2022 Cottell sent cards in the post to her and a few days later went to the house of a acquaintance of the woman where he left Christmas presents. The acquaintance was left scared because she knew he could be "erratic and violent".

On Christmas Day Cottell called his former partner a number of times, despite her trying to remind him he was not allowed to contact her. The police attended her address and even while she was giving her statement to officers, Cottell contacted her again.

The court heard that he was deemed unfit to stand trial after medical reports suggested he was suffering from a form of dementia. A finding by a jury was that the facts were proven and he had, yet again, breached the restraining order multiple times.

Judge Johnson noted the medical reports, explaining that he had been presented with two doctors who both approved the imposition of section 12 under the Mental Health Act. Judge Johnson explained that following the finding of fact by the jury, it was "difficult" to find somewhere for Cottell to go and he was initially sent to HMP Exeter.

He was then moved to an appropriate hosptial and he starteed to receive treatment. He was then moved, following a variation of the order to Section 38 of the Mental Health Act, to Mount Gould Hospital where he currently resides.

Judge Johnson said he was satisfied that Cottell suffers from "a condition amenable to treatment", the condition being cognitive decline, "essentially a form of dementia which will only become worse".

As such, Judge Johnson agreed with the medical advice and imposed a hospital order under Section 5, subsection 2 of the Criminal Procedure Insanity Act of 1964.

He said this was "essentially the same thing" as the hospital order under section 37 of the Mental Health Act. He said the doctor's report suggested Cottell was becoming increasingly confused and it was "only getting worse".

Cottell - whom court records has as being born in 1952, making him 71-years of age - spoke briefly to the judge over the video link, thanking him but saying he found things "difficult to understand".

He added that it was "nothing do with my dementia - it's to do with the fact that my age, I'm 83. Do I understand? Of course I don't. I can't understand. I'm terribly sorry if I've caused any situation and I certainly pray for [woman's name]" adding that he would not cause her any harm.

In reply Judge Johnson reminded Cottell the restraining order was still in place and he was not allowed to contact the woman under any circumstances.

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