How husband’s two years of email terror turned wife towards suicide
What you need to know:
Fearing to leave the house and contemplating suicide, Mrs Playle, aged 43, found comfort only with Paul, her husband of 27 years.
The emails used the name of a long-ago boyfriend, but the police were not convinced and set up a secret surveillance operation.
Eventually, they told her who the stalker was — her husband.
For two years, Alice Playle received email messages which said she was being watched, which asked questions about her sex life and called her a “slag.” Messages were also sent to her mother, father and work colleagues.
One email said, “Nice handbag, do you want to meet in Starbucks for a coffee?” which she received when she was out shopping and holding a new bag.
SURVEILLANCE
Fearing to leave the house and contemplating suicide, Mrs Playle, aged 43, found comfort only with Paul, her husband of 27 years.
The emails used the name of a long-ago boyfriend, but the police were not convinced and set up a secret surveillance operation. Eventually, they told her who the stalker was — her husband.
CRUEL BEHAVIOUR
At Lewes Crown Court, Playle denied charges of stalking and controlling behaviour aimed to humiliate and degrade, but he was convicted by a jury in less than 30 minutes.
Judge Christine Henson told him, “You watched your wife crumble before you because of the fear she was experiencing from this online abuse. You pretended to comfort her. That is the most calculating and cruel behaviour.” She jailed Playle for three and a half years.
HARASSMENT
Mrs Playle said the pair met when they were 16 and she had been faithful to him throughout their marriage. Now, she said, “I am terrified to leave the house. I panic when my phone goes off. He was the one person I believed I could always trust.”
The case coincided with a report that women and girls in the UK face relentless harassment on the street. The Parliamentary Women and Equalities Committee researched the issue for nine months and concluded that harassment, ranging from catcalls and shouts to sexual assaults, had become normalised. It said not enough was being done to stop it.
ASSAILANT
Witnesses testified that aggressive behaviour took place in parks and on the street, on public transport, in bars and clubs and on university campuses.
The committee recalled that the government had promised to end harassment by 2039, but said there was “no evidence of any programme to achieve this.”
A Home Office spokeswoman said it was working on an updated strategy.
Experts advised that if a female chooses to respond to an assailant, she should do so firmly in a loud voice, never engage in conversation and move smartly on.
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Out goes the old, in comes the new … the marketing giant John Lewis has announced that it will sell no more DVD players once the current stock is finished. We all have to be streamers now. The store also said alarm clocks and door knockers are being replaced by new technology. Sales of its alarm clocks fell by 16 per cent over the last year with more people using mobile phones for their wake-up calls. Knocker sales dropped by nine per cent, giving way to smart doorbells.
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For film fans, guess which of these movies was the most terrifying of all time: Psycho, Saw, The Exorcist, The Shining, The Silence of the Lambs, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
The winner, according to a popular poll: The Exorcist.
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By any standards, it was a way-out selection, forecasting the winners of five horse races out of six in a single evening, one of them at outrageous odds of 150-1.
A spokesman for the bookmaker Corals described it as “one of the most, if not the most, spectacular winning bets we have ever seen.”
And it won the punter £300,000 at a cost of £6.20.
It’s possible the bettor himself did not believe he could win since it took him more than 24 hours to claim his winnings, choosing then to remain anonymous.
The gambler placed the bet, known as an accumulator, at Corals branch in Throckley near Newcastle upon Tyne. All choices were for an evening meeting of flat races at Chelmsford.
He got the ball rolling with a horse named The Meter winning at 150-1, followed by Dollar Value at 14-1, then Full Intention 12-1. Rampant Lion proved the lone loser, but then came two more firsts at 8-1 and 14-1 respectively.
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Married woman to friend: “My husband’s always complaining about spending his money, yet I made him a millionaire.” Friend: “What was he before?” Wife: “A multimillionaire.”
A man goes into a bar and orders a beer. The barman asks why he looks so glum. Customer: “I had a row with my wife and she said she wouldn’t speak to me for a month.” Barman: “What’s wrong with that?” “Customer: “The month ends tonight.”
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A robber holds up a bank, then addresses a bystander. “Did you see me rob this bank?” he asks. The customer replies, “Yes.” The robber shoots him dead and points his gun at another customer: “Did you see me rob this bank.” Replies the customer, “No, sir, but my wife saw everything.”
