Maree Louisa Tobin found not guilty of stalking in Proserpine court

A woman accused of stalking a neighbour who complained about a dog attack has been cleared in court — almost two years later.

Maree Louisa Tobin was found not guilty of stalking in the Proserpine Magistrates Court.

A Bloomsbury woman accused of stalking her neighbour after she made a complaint to council about her is innocent, as police were unable to prove she was in her car at the time.

Maree Louisa Tobin appeared in the Proserpine Magistrates Court on Wednesday after six witnesses were called by the prosecution who alleged Ms Tobin repeatedly drove past the complainant’s property, parked in front of her property, and followed her to a friend’s house.

The witnesses alleged they noticed the car on the street between the dates of March 28 and May 7, 2023.

Ms Tobin pleaded not guilty to the charge of unlawful stalking on March 7.

PD Law solicitor Peta Blundell appeared on behalf of Ms Tobin who did not give or call evidence, telling the court there were issues with identification both of who was allegedly driving the car and who the alleged conduct was directed at.

The complainant admitted to the court while they had only ever seen Ms Tobin driving the car they could not rule out the fact that there could have been another driver on some of the alleged occasions.

Ms Blundell said the complainant telling the court she heard a ‘gunshot’ on one of the occasions where the car was parked outside of the house was irrelevant because it was never confirmed there was an actual gunshot, adding the complainant’s belief she may be shot was not reasonable in the circumstances.

She said the complainant was likely paranoid after she told the court she thought the alleged stalking may have been triggered by a complaint they made to local council after Ms Tobin’s dogs attacked her while she was on a walk with her own dogs in January 2023.

The complainant told the court she and her partner drove to a friend’s house before work and alleged she was followed by Ms Tobin, it was after this incident she went to the police to report the alleged incidents.

The complainant’s partner told the court the situation had really frightened the complainant who was no longer able to walk her dogs and had to have a fence installed on the property.

Magistrate Anna Smith said in relation to the allegation that Ms Tobin repeatedly drove past the complainant’s property, while all witnesses described the car in the same way, in most of the witness accounts Ms Tobin was not actually seen.

She said the fact Ms Tobin did not need to drive past the complainant’s property to get to her own was a circumstantial fact used to support the notion that the conduct was deliberately targeted at the complainant but said it was her position that the car could have been driving down that road for any number of reasons and could be given little to no weight.

Ms Smith said in relation to the allegation that Ms Tobin parked her car in front of the complainant’s property it was notable that the complainant accepted while they alleged Ms Tobin was parked and staring down their driveway, she had only seen the vehicle and not Ms Tobin on all but one occasion.

She said in the image of the car provided as evidence it was very difficult to distinguish what type of car it was and did not support or negate Ms Tobin staring down the driveway.

She also noted that the car had been seen stopped with its lights off in front of multiple neighbours’ homes.

In relation to the allegation that Ms Tobin followed the complainant, Ms Smith said while the alleged conduct could be directed at the complainant, it could also have been directed at her partner or any number of her neighbours.

Ms Smith said she was not satisfied that the prosecution had proved the conduct was intentionally directed at the complainant which was an essential element of the charge.

She found Ms Tobin not guilty and the charge was dismissed.

Originally published as Maree Louisa Tobin found not guilty of stalking in Proserpine court