Painter at Falmouth shipyard started stalking his ex-partner

Benjamin Broderick, 34, of Trelissick Road, Falmouth pleaded guilty to stalking involving serious alarm and distress when he appeared before Truro magistrates on Thursday.

The prosecution told the court that the Broderick began a relationship with the victim when she was pregnant in 2020 and they lived together during lockdown.

However, during that time she said the relationship became toxic and he was very controlling and possessive.

“She said on one occasion he left his mobile phone recording her in the house because he believed she was cheating on him because she put a post on Facebook asking for builders to do some work on the home,” said the prosecution.

She said between the 26th of January and sixth of February 2022 he went to her address in Beech Road on uninvited and unwanted multiple times, walking into her home without knocking on one occasion.

She said he also followed her and her friends around Falmouth.

He was arrested on for stalking her on June 1, 2022 again for going to her address uninvited and watching her while she was out with the children.

“This escalated when the defendant attended her address with a ladder and climbed up to look into her window.”

He was bailed with conditions that prevented him from entering the street or contacting the woman directly or indirectly.

On January 26 last year, the day his bail conditions ended, and later that same evening he started stalking the victim at her address on multiple occasions running up to February 7.

She had a CCTV doorbell which filmed him being there on multiple occasions during different times of the day on some occasions spending prolonged periods in her garden. She also had repeated telephone calls from unknown numbers and messages.

On April 18 last year a two year Stalking Protection Order against him was granted which is still in place.

In a victim impact statement the woman said the situation had escalated and she felt increasingly exhausted by it all.

“I feel physically and emotionally drained and I am not who I used to be any more,” she said. “Due to this I am finding it very hard just to do my daily tasks like doing the dishes.

“I feel tight chested and stressed all the time. I can’t have somebody doing this to me and my children. I think he needs help, he cannot go around doing this to other people.

She said when he turned up at her house she got panicky and sweaty and didn’t know what to do for the best.

Bradshaw, who had no representation, told the court he had hoped to form a relationship with the child his ex-partner was pregnant with at the time, but now he had a new partner and they were expecting a baby together soon.

Magistrates ordered he attend the Building Better Relationships programme with 15 rehabilitation days and do unpaid work of 160 hours. A new two year restraining order was put in place to run alongside the current one, not to contact the victim or enter the road where she lived. He was also ordered to pay costs of £85 and a surcharge of £114.

If you have been affected by crime, please visit https://orlo.uk/cOqV8 to access support services and information on your rights and how to navigate the criminal justice system.

You can also call Victim Support on 08 08 16 89 111 or Devon and Cornwall Police’s Victim Care Unit on 01392 475900.