Stalker breached order out of 'love'
JOANNA Cramer is best known for breaking through a security cordon and bursting on to the Melboune Cricket Ground to hug former Richmond ruckman Greg Stafford.
JOANNA Cramer is best known for breaking through a security cordon and bursting on to the Melboune Cricket Ground to hug former Richmond ruckman Greg Stafford.
Five years later, the 29-year-old's delusional love for the footballer remains as strong as ever. Even an intervention order was not enough to keep her away from Stafford, Melbourne Magistrates Court heard yesterday.
Ms Cramer was appearing on a charge of breaching an intervention order taken out by Stafford on May 19 last year.
The order was sought almost four years after Ms Cramer ran on to the MCG following the final siren and approached an unimpressed Stafford. It prevented her from going within 500m of Richmond's clubhouse in inner Melbourne.
After the 2002 incident, she claimed in a Today Tonight television interview that she had dated the former Tigers ruckman and that he had written her love letters.
But according to Stafford, Ms Cramer was a "serial pest" who had been annoying him for almost five years before the MCG episode.
That would make Ms Cramer's obsession with Stafford almost 10 years old.
Prosecutor Steve Ford told the court yesterday that Ms Cramer telephoned Richmond Football Club on June 2 last year and had asked for Stafford, before hanging up. Two hours later, she turned up at the clubhouse.
When police contacted her to ask why she had breached an intervention order, Ms Cramer claimed she was concerned about Stafford.
"I am worried about him, I care about him, I love him," she told police.
Defence lawyer Susan Powell told magistrate Lesley Fleming yesterday that Ms Cramer had been unwell when she broke the intervention order and had undertaken to comply with directions issued by her doctors.
"She is very keen to put this whole matter behind her," Ms Fleming said. "She wants to move on with her life."
Ms Cramer was spared a conviction and placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond.
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