A stalker who bugged his ex-boyfriend’s car, redirected his mail and smeared him as a scammer in an attempt to get additional support for his 12-year-old daughter is facing jail time.
Veronica Jackson told Kevin McCormack, “I know where you are, I know what you’re doing,” in a series of messages during his harassment campaign.
The 44-year-old accumulated and opened her victim’s letters in an attempt to prove he was claiming benefits while in work, and force him to contribute £200 a month in child support payments, a court heard.
When Mr McCormack found work at a nightclub, he made an anonymous call to his new boss falsely claiming that the police were investigating him for fraud.
Jackson, from Henbury, Cheshire, now faces jail after being found guilty of stalking and accused of delaying mail.
Warrington Magistrates Court heard how the couple had a daughter in 2012 but split eight years after their relationship ended. The father said he had “agreed on a figure” with the Child Support Agency (CSA), but Jackson demanded more and the situation had “stalled.”
While unemployed, Mr McCormack, who claimed he could only give £6.25 a week to support his son, received a series of messages from his ex-girlfriend showing him the routes she had taken to and from her home. and travel times.
Jackson’s messages read: “I have enough evidence to charge you with welfare fraud. Records with photographs of all kinds. So we can work this out between us or I will take the official route. Are you going to talk to Kevin? I want you to pay for our daughter as you should be doing. You have made a very serious mistake over the last few months.”
Veronica Jackson (pictured) faces jail after harassing her ex-boyfriend
Jackson pictured with ex-boyfriend Kevin McCormack. The 44-year-old woman bugged her victim’s car and redirected her mail.
Jackson pictured outside Warrington Magistrates’ Court, where she was found guilty of harassment.
Private letters diverted to Jackson also revealed that McCormack was set to lose his rented apartment, while the stalker also contacted his employer to request confidential information when he finally landed a job at the nightclub.
Mr McCormack contacted Royal Mail to ask why he had not been receiving letters and was given a forwarding address which he visited and found the stalker’s car parked outside.
Jackson, who runs a hair extensions business, was eventually reported to police and when officers arrested her they found a mail bag at her home containing letters addressed to him that had been opened.
The victim said that after blocking Jackson on WhatsApp, she found a package of flour overturned on her vehicle the next day.
Mr McCormack told the court: ‘One morning I was seeing a friend in Bolton and Veronica sent me a message with a picture of my car and a picture of some kind of app.
‘He had the time I left, the route I took, where I ended up, and he accused me of working, of not paying enough and all kinds of things. I wasn’t working at the time.
The stalker (pictured) also accumulated and opened his victim’s letters in an attempt to prove he had a job.
The former couple photographed together. Unemployed McCormack claimed he could only pay £6.25 a week to support his child.
McCormack then contacted the Royal Mail to ask why he had not received any letters.
Jackson pictured outside Warrington Magistrates Court. She was eventually reported to the police and when the officers arrested her they found a bag of mail in her house.
‘I felt scared and nervous and felt like I was being harassed. They were non-stop messages.
‘Obviously, the follow-up made me nervous. I didn’t know what to do.
“I couldn’t move without her knowing where I was and texting them. I was constantly looking out the window. Is something going to come through my door? It was stressful.”
He added: ‘I told Veronica that the CSA was dealing with this and to leave me alone. I said, ‘We can work this out, stop harassing me. Stop stalking me and making my life such that I can’t go anywhere. Leave me alone. Let’s get on with our lives. Let’s resolve things properly for our daughter.’ But she kept texting me.
‘At that time I was renting an apartment and I received a message from the owner saying he was selling it. Then I got a message from Veronica saying, ‘Haha, I’m so sorry to see you homeless.’ You deserve this. They are evicting you.’
‘I was surprised how she knew this information. Only the owner and the real estate agent who was dealing with the matter knew.
‘I didn’t get any mail for two or three weeks and I thought that was a bit strange, so I went to the post office and asked and they told me my mail had been redirected to this address.
‘I went to the address and Veronica’s car was in the driveway. That’s why she knew about the personal stuff. Whatever the mail was, she obviously found it. She found out about the situation at my house.
“I blocked her on WhatsApp because she was sending me threatening messages on Tuesday night.
“On Wednesday morning I woke up and my car was full of white flour. It took me three days to get it out.”
In her testimony, Jackson claimed her ex-boyfriend had been working as a construction site manager while collecting benefits, adding: ‘On a phone call I had with the CSA they asked me if I could find out where he was working and I said, ‘Leave that to me. ‘
‘He said he was receiving benefits but we were gathering information that he was in work, which would have changed the payments from £6.25 a week to £50 a week, which is what I applied for.
‘(The CSA) asked me if I could get a bank statement or pay stub to prove I was working. So I redirected their email.’
Private letters diverted to Jackson also showed that McCormack would lose his rented apartment.
Jackson’s text messages to his victim included: “I have enough evidence to charge her with welfare fraud.”
In her testimony, Jackson claimed that her ex-boyfriend had been working as a construction manager while claiming benefits.
When asked if he thought putting the tracker on his vehicle was harassment, Jackson said: “There was no contact with Kevin, he wouldn’t talk to me and he continually hung up on the CSA phone.”
“I was trying to get him to pay for my daughter. I’m a single mother of a 12-year-old girl who doesn’t get any payments from her father. I didn’t know how to do it any other way.”
Prosecutor Vincent Yip said: “There is simply no excuse for doing what she did. She was scared.”
“I didn’t know what was going to happen. Tracking someone, knowing their location, redirecting their message without permission, calling their workplace, making inquiries, any reasonable person would consider that to be harassment and unreasonable in all the circumstances.” .
But defence lawyer Lionel Greig said: ‘She was trying to show that he was working and that she and her daughter are entitled to appropriate and correctly calculated benefits.
‘You can get legal advice, but there is a cost element which is important in family proceedings. There is the possibility of hiring a private detective, but everything costs money – the accused simply did not have the means.’
“She was simply trying to show that he was working and had financial responsibilities to his daughter.”
Sentencing Jackson, Justice of the Peace Robin Bradshaw told him: ‘You admitted installing the tracker, redirecting and opening mail and contacting your workplace.
‘While we have sympathy for the situation he finds himself in, we reject the view that his conduct was reasonable in the circumstances, because the other evidence is so compelling.
“You should have known that your behavior would amount to harassment.”