(Image: West Yorkshire Police)
A court has heard how a stalker with a history of drinking and domestic abuse threatened to burn down his girlfriend’s house and pour acid in her face.
Jailing Dale Lemmon, a judge said he had minimised his offending, lacked victim empathy, and showed little evidence of genuine remorse.
Prosecutor Beth Richardson said Lemmon, 33, of School Street, Clayton, Bradford, had been in a relationship with a woman for six months until March this year.
When drunk he was verbally abusive and controlling.
He monitored the woman’s phone, tracked where she was and who she was with, and made threats to burn down her home with her and her children inside.
He would not permit her to speak to other men, including colleagues at work, and accused her of being unfaithful if she declined his sexual advances.
Miss Richardson said: “Whenever [the complainant] tried to end the relationship, he would say words to the effect of, ‘We haven’t split up until I say we’ve split up’.”
“He once told her that if the relationship ended, he would pour acid in her face and ensure she ended up in a refuge.”
When the woman ended the relationship Lemmon continued to monitor her movements, sent abusive and threatening messages, and waited outside her workplace.
On one occasion he followed her in a car and swerved over the road.
The woman agreed to talk to him, but he made daily calls to her and was abusive.
Among his threats were that he would ‘rip her head off’ and said: “Watch, if anyone comes out of your house I’ll put them under my bonnet.”
His behaviour continued with him calling her at 3am, tracking her movements, and not accepting that the relationship was over.
He was reported to the police on July 7.
Ten days later Lemmon was stopped by police in Halifax whilst driving a white van.
A retractable baton was discovered in the van, and when breath-tested Lemmon was found to be over the drink-drive limit.
When interviewed he denied stalking and said he and the woman were ‘sorting things out’ in their relationship.
He answered ‘no comment’ to questions about controlling and coercive behaviour allegations.
He denied knowing the baton was a weapon, describing it as a ‘extendable bar’ used for trolley-jacking cars.
The complainant said she did not want to provide a victim statement as she did not want to give Lemmon ‘the thrill’ of knowing any negative impact that his actions may have had on her.
Lemmon pleaded guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour, stalking, possessing an offensive weapon in public, and drink-driving.
The court heard that Lemmon had 10 previous convictions for 19 offences including for drink-driving, dangerous driving, possession of an offensive weapon, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and sending a communication threatening death or serious harm.
The final two offences related to a previous partner who was punched several times by Lemmon.
When she refused to forgive him, he threatened to rape and kill both her and her sister.
For those offences he was jailed for 21 months.
He was on licence at the time of the current offending.
Mitigating for Lemmon, who appeared via video link from HMP Leeds, Josh Sykes said he accepted what he had done, that he was sorry and remorseful, and that “he should have taken no for an answer”.
He said Lemmon accepted that he had an alcohol problem and had consumed alcohol daily for between 10 and 15 years.
He said Lemmon had previously been on an alcohol monitoring programme, which had “massively” cut down his drinking, and wished to return to it.
Sentencing Lemmon for what he described as “serious offences”, Mr Recorder Patrick Palmer noted what had been written in a pre-sentence report by the probation service.
He said: “The officer questions your attitude. You minimise offending. You lack victim empathy. You show little evidence of genuine remorse.
“And your expression of attitudes towards women in that report [include that] you would not allow a partner of yours to speak to other men out of respect.
“The point is made in that pre-sentence report that despite earlier interventions there has been little change in your attitude.”
He jailed Lemmon for a total of 15 months, banned him from driving for 23 months, and imposed a five-year restraining order prohibiting Lemmon from contacting the victim.
Recorder Palmer said Lemmon would serve half of his sentence in custody but that the time he had spent on remand would be deducted.
He added: “It may be you will not have very much longer to serve.”