Rachael Maree Bell pleads guilty to unlawful stalking, harassment

A Queensland woman who thought her husband was having an affair with his work colleague stalked the other woman, repeatedly harassing her over three months.

Bell, 32 who now lives in Bloomsbury, pleaded guilty to unlawful stalking, intimidation, harassing or abuse including sending vexatious emails about the woman she thought her partner was having an affair with.

A Mackay region woman who thought her husband was having an affair with his work colleague stalked the other woman, repeatedly harassing her over phone, email and online over three months.

Rachael Maree Bell must complete a 12 months probation order and will not have a conviction recorded after her lawyer successfully argued against it.

Her offending occurred between December 2023 and March 2024 in the Mackay region, which police prosecutor sergeant Hannah Beaumont labelled as “protracted” and Magistrate Damien Dwyer agreed was “not a trivial offence”.

The harassment involved Bell making multiple online complaints against the woman regarding her personal demeanour in the workplace.

She then tried to contact the woman on Facebook, expressing that she had an issue with the woman and her husband communicating outside of work hours.

The victim also received more than 30 missed calls over several days to her personal and work phones.

The woman answered one of the calls to her work phone and Bell introduced herself and accused the victim of having an affair with her husband before denying making any vexatious complaints.

Bell also contacted her victim’s partner with claims of the affair.

When Bell’s husband confronted her she denied any involvement. The victim make a complaint to police, who warned Bell that a possible outcome included criminal charges.

After this Bell contacted the woman, her partner and made another anonymous complaint pretending to be her husband.

“The victim felt intimidated and harassed … leading to personal and professional stress and humiliation,” the court heard.

Bell, 32 who now lives in Bloomsbury, pleaded guilty to unlawful stalking, intimidation, harassing or abuse.

Sergeant Beaumont had pushed for a suspended jail term submitting the victim had suffered as a result of the “consistent harassment over that period”.

Harvey Legal solicitor Laura Santin said “there are no circumstances of aggravation” and that her client had no criminal history.

The court heard the offending “seems to have come out of the blue”.

“She got to the end of her tether,” Mr Dwyer said.

Ms Santin said her client had a good background and ran her own business, submitting this was Bell’s first offence that was committed because she was worried about the breakdown of her family.

Ms Santin relied on district court case law that stated family breakdowns drive people to a space where until you are there and experiencing it you would never understand or believe that you would do it.

The court heard Mr Dwyer had been considering a conviction but was ultimately persuaded by Ms Santin’s arguments.