A MAN who refused to accept the end of his marriage stalked his estranged wife for months – leaving her "a prisoner in my own home".

Richard Hewitson sent emails, flowers and a poem to the woman and on one day drove up and down her street 30 times in just one hour.

The couple had been together for four years but split up last September just four months after they got married, Teesside Crown Court heard.

They lived separately in the marital home while they waited for it to be sold, but Hewitson's wife moved out in December.

She received a Christmas card and a poem in which the 65-year-old told how much he missed her.

Hewitson – known as Alan – was sent a solicitor's letter asking him to stay away, and got a harassment warning from the police in February.

Prosecutor Victoria Lamballe told the court that the woman returned home one evening in a taxi, and Hewitson later pulled over the cabbie to ask him where she had been.

A neighbour reported seeing him in three different vehicles one day, described him as a daily visitor to the street, and on one occasion she saw him drive up and down 30 times in an hour.

"This quite naturally left her fearful and the police were informed," Miss Lamballe told Judge Deborah Sherwin. "He was arrested on March 9 and accepted some of the conduct.

"He maintained he simply had difficulty accepting the relationship was over and expressed the view he was hoping for a reconciliation. He said he never intended to do his ex-wife any harm, he loved her so much and missed her."

Gary Wood, mitigating, described Hewitson's behaviour as "pathetic and foolish" and told the judge: "He finally realises that the relationship is over."

Hewitson, of Seymour Drive, Eaglescliffe, near Stockton, admitted stalking and was given a two-year community order and a restraining order to keep him away from his estranged wife.

Mr Wood said: "He accepts his behaviour was a pathetic attempt, a futile attempt, for him to try to reconcile.

"He genuinely felt that there was hope, although now he realises that he was foolish to think such a thing.

"He can offer no great explanation other than being heartbroken that the relationship ended."

In a statement, his victim said: "I am still scared and feel like a prisoner in my own home. I have my blinds constantly closed and I feel like he is still watching me. I feel very jumpy and scared."

Judge Sherwin told Hewitson: "If you breach the restraining order or if there is any repetition of this behaviour, then prison will be the outcome.

"When any marriage breaks up, people are upset by it. The problem is, that people are expected and, indeed, required by law, to behave in a civilised fashion – that means not monitoring and not attending regularly."