A LOVESICK man has been jailed for a campaign of harassment in which he doctored his ex-girlfriend’s toiletries with the hormone testosterone.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard the 58-year-old divorcee put testosterone gel, prescribed for him for a brain tumour, in the intimate deodorant Femfresh, Nivea body wash and face cream and Olay lotion.

Father-of-two Russell Winsor, of Fairhaven Court, Victoria Esplanade, West Mersea, who has been in custody since his arrest last February, was jailed for 16 months for what the judge called “ugly, unpleasant and offensive” behaviour.

He admitted a charge of stalking Teresa Thomas, a 58-year-old secretary.

Three other offences which Winsor denied were left to lie on file.

Winsor had denied a second offence of stalking Miss Thomas’s tenant, Lisa Sudbury, and to two offences of administering a noxious substance relating to the testosterone and putting a highly alkaline substance in a bottle of shampoo.

He claimed someone else had adulterated the toiletries to incriminate him.

However, Judge David Turner said he was lying.

He said a scientist had linked the prescribed hormone gel to the doctored lotions.

The court also heard Winsor had hidden cameras in Ms Thomas’s bedroom and lounge as well as fitting a tracker on her car which was linked to his iPhone.

Judge Turner said: “You behaved extremely badly towards her. It affected her significantly. She describes herself as feeling sick when she saw those cameras, vulnerable, frightened, her privacy invaded. She felt unsafe and helpless.

“It was a thoroughly unpleasant and frightening intrusion into her privacy.

“You had endangered her health by the use of this testosterone gel.”

He also imposed an indefinite restraining order banning Winsor from contacting either Miss Thomas or her tenant.

The court had heard police had found manuals, camera receivers, a soldering iron, pliers, wire adapters, a spy camera, and a spare key to the Miss Thomas’s car at his home.

His iPhone showed hundreds of connections between January 17 and February 10 to the tracker he had installed in the car.

Winsor, who was previously married for 35 years, addressed the judge directly.

He said he and Ms Thomas had lived together for nearly a year and he ended it.

He claimed he installed the cameras, usually used for watching bird nests, because he was worried she might kill herself.

He denied contaminating the lotions. He said his pots of the gel were in both their flats adding : “I think somebody put it there to incriminate me.”

He said he pleaded guilty at the last minute because he had spent 11 months in prison on remand and said: “ I’ve seen enough cases where it’s the word of a man against a woman and rightly or wrongly you have no chance.

“I don’t think the law is very good at emotions. It’s difficult to draw a line between hurtful and harmful. When two people are splitting up it’s no place for the law.”