Stalker hid listening devices in plug-in adaptors in woman's home

A judge has told a "sinister" stalker he is facing an inevitable prison sentence after he installed listening devices disguised as plug-in adaptors at the home of a Calderdale woman .

Wayne Bamford, 47, of Wakefield Road, Gildersome, installed the two devices in his victim's bedroom and used various phones to listen in to what was going on inside her home.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday that Bamford had contacted one of the devices more than 1600 times over a two-week period.

The woman discovered the two devices - one behind her bedside cabinet and the other hidden behind a wall-mounted television - after becoming suspicious that Bamford had put her under some kind of surveillance.

Bamford pleaded guilty to the stalking charge in January, but the defendant and the complainant had to give evidence before a judge so he could decide the full circumstances of the offending.

Although Bamford claimed he had only installed one device in the kitchen Recorder Anthony Hawks dismissed the defendant's allegation that the second device had been bought and fitted in her own home by the complainant.

Recorder Hawks concluded that the complainant had been entirely plausible and truthful in her evidence while he described Bamford as evasive and dishonest.

The judge described Bamford's behaviour had been sinister and he adjourned sentence on him for an assessment of the risk he posed to the complainant and other women.

He said the defendant had been prepared to engage in highly sophisticated stalking of the complainant and added: "There can be little more terrifying for somebody than to find out they are being listened to in their own home. The one place where they are entitled to feel safe from your instrusion."

Recorder Hawks granted Bamford bail until his sentence hearing on October 19, but he imposed conditions which include a ban on him contacting the complainant or entering Calderdale.

The judge said a prison sentence of some length seemed inevitable and he warned Bamford that one tweet or one message in breach of his bail would result in him being locked up.