A stalker who bugged her ex-boyfriend’s car, redirected his mail and smeared him as a benefits cheat in a bid to get extra child support for their 12-year-old daughter is facing jail.
Veronica Jackson told Kevin McCormack, ‘I know where you are – I know what you are doing’, in a string of messages during her stalking campaign.
The 44-year-old hoarded and opened her victim’s letters in an attempt to prove he was claiming benefits while he had a job, and force him to contribute £200 a month in child maintenance payments, a court heard.
When Mr McCormack found work at a nightclub, she made an anonymous call to his new boss falsely claiming that police were investigating him for fraud.
Jackson, of Henbury, Cheshire, is now facing jail after being convicted of stalking and a charge of delaying mail.
Warrington Magistrates’ Court heard how the couple had a daughter together in 2012 but split up eight years after their relationship ended. The father said he had ‘agreed a figure’ with the Child Support Agency (CSA) but that Jackson demanded more and the situation had become a ‘stalemate’.
When he was jobless, Mr McCormack – who claimed he was only able to give £6.25 a week to support their child – then received a series of messages from his ex-girlfriend showing routes he had taken to and from his home and the times of the journeys.
Texts from Jackson read: ‘I have enough evidence to have you done for benefit fraud. Picture log ins all sorts. So we can sort this out between us or I will take the official route, are you going to talk Kevin? I want you to pay for our daughter as you should be doing. You’ve made a really bad error for the last few months.’
Private letters diverted to Jackson also revealed that Mr McCormack was due to lose his rented flat, while the stalker also contacted his employer requesting confidential information when he eventually got a job at the nightclub.
Mr McCormack contacted the Royal Mail to ask why he had not been receiving letters and was given a forwarding address which he visited and found the stalker’s car parked outside.
Jackson, who runs a hair extensions business, was eventually reported by police and when officers arrested her they found a sack of mail at her home with letters addressed to him which had been opened.
The victim said that after he blocked Jackson on WhatsApp he found a packet of flour tipped over his vehicle the following day.
Mr McCormack told the court: ‘One morning I was seeing a friend in Bolton and Veronica sent a message through with a picture of my car and a picture of some kind of app.
‘It had what time I set off, what route I took, where I ended up, and she was accusing me of working, not paying enough, and all kinds of things with it. I was not working at the time.
‘I felt scared and nervous and I felt like I was being harassed. It was non-stop messaging.
‘Obviously with the tracking, it made me feel nervous. I did not know what to do.
‘I could not move without her knowing where I was and sending them messages. I was looking out the window all the time. Is something going to come through my door? It was stressful.’
He added: ‘I told Veronica the CSA were dealing with it and to leave me alone. I said: ‘We can sort this out, stop harassing me. Stop stalking me and making my life that I cannot go anywhere. Leave me alone. Let’s get on with our lives. Let’s sort stuff out properly for our daughter.’ But she kept texting me.
‘At the time I was renting a flat and I got a message from the landlord saying he was selling it. Then I got a message off Veronica saying ‘Haha, I’m so sorry to see you being homeless. You deserve this. You are being evicted.’
‘It was blowing my mind how she knew this information. Only the landlord and the estate agent dealing with it knew about it.
‘I was not getting any post for about two or three weeks and I thought that was a bit odd so I went to the post office and inquired and they said my mail had been redirected to this address.
‘I went to the address and Veronica’s car was in the drive. That is why she knew about the personal stuff. Whatever mail went, she obviously found it. She found out about my house situation.
‘I blocked her on WhatsApp because she was sending me threatening messages on the Tuesday night.
‘On the Wednesday morning I woke up and my car was full of white flour. It took three days to get it off.’
In her evidence, Jackson claimed her ex-boyfriend had been working as a building site manager whilst claiming benefits and added: ‘In a phone call I had with the CSA they asked me if I could find out where he was working and I said: ‘Leave it with me.’
‘He said he was on benefits but we were gathering information that he was working which would have changed the payments from £6.25 a week to £50 a week which is what I’ve asked for.
‘[The CSA] asked if I could get a bank statement or a payslip to prove he was working. So I redirected his mail.’
When asked if she thought putting the tracker on his vehicle was stalking, Jackson said: ‘There was no contact with Kevin, he would not talk with me and he continuously put the phone down on the CSA.
‘I was trying to get him to pay for my daughter. I am a single mum with a 12-year-old child with no payments whatsoever from her father. I did not know how else to do it.’
Prosecutor Vincent Yip said: ‘There is simply no excuse for doing what she did. He was in fear.
‘He didn’t know what was going to happen. Tracking someone, their location, redirecting their post without permission, calling their place of work, making enquiries, a reasonable person would find that is stalking and unreasonable in all the circumstances.’
But defence lawyer Lionel Greig said: ‘She was trying to prove that he was working and she and her daughter are entitled to appropriate benefits properly calculated.
‘She can obtain legal advice but there is a cost element and those are significant in family proceedings. There is the possibility of instructing a private detective but again it all costs – the defendant simply did not have the means.’
‘She was simply trying to demonstrate that he was working and had financial responsibilities to his daughter.’
In convicting Jackson, JP Robin Bradshaw told her: ‘You did admit to fitting the tracker, redirecting and opening mail and contacting his place of work.
‘Whilst we have sympathy for the situation you find yourself in, we reject that your course of conduct was reasonable in the circumstances, due to other evidence being so compelling.
‘You ought to have known your course of conduct would amount to stalking.’