A ’delusional and fixated’ man who stalked a transatlantic best selling author and her daughter for seven years after a chance meeting on a flight has been jailed.
Mark Jury of Snatchwood, Llangattock met Kristine Carlson by chance when they were sat together on a flight from Los Angeles to Heathrow in November 2007. They made conversation and in December that year, the defendant sent Mrs Carlson an email saying he had seen a psychic who had predicted they were meant to be together.
Prosecutor Laurence Jones told Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court how the 40-year-old continued to message the author, who was recently widowed, by bombarding her with twitter messages, the first of which stated ’Twitter was made for stalking’, Facebook posts as well as emails.
Mr Jones described it as a ’relentless campaign’ and said Jury was ’obsessed’ and he continued to send distressing emails to Kristine Carlson with judgemental remarks and and when his accounts were blocked, the defendant then made alias accounts.
Mr Jones then explained to the court how in 2010 Jury turned his infatuation towards Mrs Carlson’s daughter Kenna, who had just turned 18. He sent a twitter message saying ’he was going to f**k Kenna every day for the rest of her life.’ He then began to send flowers which concerned the victims as he knew where they lived.
The court heard how the defendant had visited America in 2011 causing the victims to flee their home as they were fearful he would turn up. The FBI became involved and in April 2012 the defendant signed a civil agreement preventing him contacting the Carlsons in any way.
This didn’t deter Jury and in September 2012 Dyfed Powys Police became involved. He was given a warning but his behaviour continued and his intensions intensified. He was sending Kenna Carlson over 100 messages a month via various online platforms. The messages to Miss Carlson tailed off in November 2013 and weeks before his arrest in 2014 the messages to Mrs Carlson stopped, Mr Jones told the court.
Lucy Crowther defending Jury asked that her client be given a suspended sentence. She told the court how the defendant had been diagnosed with a ’personality disorder’ and said if he was locked up he would have no monitoring or help.
Ms Crowther added that despite refusing to take medication, her client had shown a ’willingness to comply’ with any orders made.
His Honour Judge Twomlow said it had been a ’protracted campaign’ including dedicated derogatory comments. He added that Kenna Carlson said she felt she had been ’emotionally raped’ and while this was a strong statement it was justified in this case.
Judge Twomlow said that Jury fitted into the section of a ’delusional and fixated stalker’ and sentenced him to two years custody for stalking Christine Carlson and two and a half years for stalking Kenna Carlson. These are to run consecutively. A restraining order was also put in place preventing Jury contacting the victims until further order.