AN obsessive woman who breached her restraining order by posting a series of aggressive Tweets towards an anti-abuse campaigner has been jailed for four months.
Penelope Mellor denied two counts of breaching the order, which was put in place in March 2015 and banned her from contacting or posting messages online about Shy Keenan, who lives near Colchester.
However, yesterday a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court found the 57-year-old guilty on both counts.
Judge David Turner sentenced Mellor to four months in jail for each offence to run concurrently.
He said: “In spring 2015 I explained, I hope with clarity, what the consequences of breaching the order would be.
“I told you if you breached the other you would receive a prison sentence of up to five years and breach the order you did.
“There is no doubt at all the victim is a vulnerable person and I have no doubt she has been seriously affected by these Tweets.
“You convinced yourself she was a bad person in this field and you have made it part of your life’s work to make her life more difficult.”
The five year order had banned Mellor from publishing any information relating to Ms Keenan or her family directly or indirectly online.
It also banned her from posting complaints or documenting any complaints about the book Broken or any other book or article written or published by Ms Keenan.
However, in October 2015, it was found Mellor had posted a Tweet where she made reference to “Joanne Pepper” - an alias used by Ms Keenan.
The other breach took place in August 2016, when Mellor posted a cryptic message which the prosecution said referred to Broken as “utter drivel”.
She also used gun emojis in both posts.
During the trial, Mellor declined the opportunity to take to the witness stand.
Anthony Abell, prosecuting, said the ordeal had been extremely distressing for the Ms Keenan, who is an anti-abuse campaigner and founder of the Phoenix Chief Advocates’ Consultancy.
Reading a statement from the victim, Mr Abell said: “As a result of the distress caused I have been enforced to increase my on and offline security.
“It has had a negative impact on myself, my family, my friends and supporters’ lives.”
Imran Khan, mitigating, said mother-of-eight Mellor had recently been forced into caring for her mother and asked for a suspended sentence to be passed.
He said: “There is no intention on her part to contact Ms Keenan again or any other activists. Because of her children and her mother it is not likely she will repeat the same mistake.”
Mellor, of Coven, Wolverhampton, was also ordered to pay £1,500 in costs and the restraining order was extended for five years.
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