Stalker council leader in Cornwall given court order to protect victim
A council leader in Cornwall has been slapped with an anti-stalking order for harassing a woman and her family. Graham Michael Smith, 68, appeared before Truro Magistrates' Court earlier this month for stalking a woman, her husband and their children over a period of time.
The court heard how ex-BBC and ITV reporter Smith, who is the chairman of St Mabyn Parish Council, has been ordered to stop contacting his victim or risk being charged with a criminal offence which could carry a prison sentence.
Smith was dismissed by Reach Plc, owners of CornwallLive and its sister papers the Cornishman, West Briton and the Cornish Guardian, for setting up his own news website while still employed by the company. He often boasts of having been sacked from every major news organisation in Cornwall, including ITV and BBC.
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The owner of the pay-per-view site Cornwall Reports, who runs the site on his own, appeared in court for sending numerous uncalled for and unwanted letters, a parcel, Christmas cards and a birthday card through the post to his victim. A complaint for a Stalking Protection Order was sought by his victim and her family on the basis that Smith poses a "risk associated with stalking to another person and there is reasonable cause to believe the proposed order is necessary to protect another from such a risk in accordance with section 1 of the Stalking Protection Act 2019".
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Magistrates granted the order against London-born Smith. It now means that for the next five years he is banned from having any contact whatsoever with his victim, her husband or their children. He is also banned from entering a specified area.
Smith, of Station Road, St Mabyn, near Wadebridge, was warned that "failure to comply with any term of this order is a criminal offence, for which you could be sentenced to prison/detention".