Steven Elworthy pleads guilty to stalking, theft offences at Heidelberg
A serial stalker has been told a slammer sentence is “inevitable” after he harassed his victim at work, called more than 300 times and showed up uninvited at her home.
North
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A serial stalker has been compared to a “bunny boiler” in court after he harassed his victim hundreds of times, including monitoring her at the greyhound races.
Montmorency man Steven Elworthy, 50, fronted Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court via videolink after pleading guilty to stalking and theft related offences.
The court heard Elworthy was controlling and would tell the victim that she swore, worked and spent too much.
The court heard Elworthy would text her 10 to 20 times a day.
The 50-year-old man needed to use his parents’ phones to send the raft of messages as his own mobile had been seized by police.
When Elworthy “had exhausted all avenues of contacting the victim”, he started texting a close relative of the victim.
He also watched the victim at the greyhound races, where she worked, on livestream.
He would send her text messages commenting on her hairstyle at the races and mentioning details such as being able to see the phone in her back pocket.
He would also “(appear) out of nowhere” and turned up to her house uninvited on at least four occasions.
The court heard he called the victim 339 times and sent her 194 text messages while on his mother’s phone in April and June last year.
He also texted the victim’s close family member 167 times.
The court heard Elworthy had a lengthy criminal history and had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.
Defence lawyer Adrian Paul said his client is not sociopathic and trying to destroy somebody’s life”.
Mr Paul conceded a jail sentence was inevitable.
Magistrate John Bentley described Elworthy’s criminal history as “really disturbing” and “bunny boiler behaviour”
The matter was adjourned for sentence in November.
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