Emily Maitlis’s stalker will ‘continue to brood and to write letters’ to her from prison after harassing the BBC presenter for more than 25 years, a court heard yesterday.
Edward Vines is alleged to have attempted to breach a restraining order by penning letters expressing his ‘unrequited love’ for Miss Maitlis.
Vines, who was described as ‘persistent and obsessive’, is behind bars after breaching restraining orders designed to protect the married mother-of-one a dozen times.
Emily Maitlis’s (pictured) stalker will ‘continue to brood and to write letters’ to her from prison after harassing the BBC presenter for more than 25 years, a court heard yesterday
The 51-year-old is now alleged to have attempted to breach a restraining order against the £250,000-a-year presenter six further times between May 31 2020 and September 21 this year.
Nottingham Crown Court heard that in one of his letters Vines said he would ‘continue to brood and to write letters in prison’ unless she spoke to him about ‘her behaviour in 1990’.
Prosecutors said he suffered a ‘perceived slight’ by Miss Maitlis while studying at Cambridge with her some 30 years ago, and that what happened ‘still caused him hurt’.
A jury was informed that Vines had violated two restraining order imposed in 2002, 2009, and 2009.
Yesterday, a eighth case was opened against him for trying to send six letters Miss Maitlis’s mother Marion Maitlis. All of these letters were intercepted and sent to HMP Nottingham.
The court heard that one letter, dated December 5 last year, ‘comprised six pages of hand-written text’.
Edward Vines (pictured) is alleged to have attempted to breach a restraining order by penning letters expressing his ‘unrequited love’ for Miss Maitlis
A separate two-page letter began: ‘You still have not spoken to me about your behaviour in 1990 and you lied to the police about it.’
Vines, who denies all six allegations, insists that the letters should be viewed as harassment.
Prosecutor Ian Way told the court: ‘On the contrary, he [Vines] stated that it was Miss Maitlis who was being unreasonable by not agreeing to his requests to talk to him.’
The trial continues.