Former Marlborough College teacher from Hartlepool in court

David Allen had already been locked up once for constantly harassing the woman by sending her messages or leaving notes for her at her home.

The 66-year-old retired art teacher was jailed for 26 weeks in April last year but within weeks of his release he had returned to stalking the woman, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Rachel Masters, prosecuting, said the defendant regularly crossed paths with the woman when she was walking her dog and he made repeated attempts to talk to her despite his recent release from prison.

She added how the contact had started with a Facebook post which had the woman tagged in a photograph before the repeated attempts at contact from October last year until January.

Miss Masters said the stalking had left the woman fearing for her safety as she didn’t know what the defendant was capable of doing to her.

Allen, 66, a former art teacher at the prestigious boarding school Marlborough College, pleaded guilty to stalking after he was arrested in January this year.

Nicci Horton, defending, said her client had been married for almost four decades before his relationship broke down and had been recovering from surgery for a congenital heart defect.

Miss Horton said Allen didn’t know the woman when he moved to the area after spending years working at the private college.

Recorder Andrew Smith MBE sentenced Allen to 30 weeks in prison suspended for two years to enable the defendant to receive the support and treatment required to amend his behaviour.

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He said: “You spent years and years living a blameless life and sadly, over the last few years there has been a deterioration in your behaviour.

“There is no clear answer but it maybe, to some extent, that a hardworking person like yourself has been having difficulty coming to terms with challenges in life, such as not working full time any longer and the end of a long-term relationship.”

Allen, of Queen Street, Hartlepool, was told that his five-year restraining order, which was imposed last year, will continue to be enforced.

He was also made subject to a six-month trail monitoring order, a six-month exclusion order to keep him out of certain parts of Seaton Carew and ordered to attend 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days.