A stalker fixated with former BBC Newsnight host Emily Maitlis has had his jail term extended for repeatedly writing to her from his prison cell.
Edward Vines attempted to breach a restraining order for the 20th time by penning letters to the broadcaster and her mother, a court heard.
The correspondence, in which he declared his unrequited love for the newsreader, 51, broke a court order made 20 years ago.
Vines, who knew Ms Maitlis from their days at Oxford University in the 1990s, showed a breathtaking persistence in his efforts to contact her from HMP Nottingham, the city’s crown court heard.
His notes were intercepted by guards. In one, he said he would continue to write to Ms Maitlis unless she spoke to him about ‘her behaviour’.
Jailing Vines, 52, for eight years, Judge Mark Watson said: ‘The only thing stopping you contacting her is your continued imprisonment.
‘It is an obsession from which you have been unable to escape.’
Jurors heard that Vines breached two separate restraining orders from 2002 and 2009 ‘systematically and with increasing frequency’, with 12 breaches to his name and seven separate prosecutions.
He denied eight counts of attempting to breach a restraining order but was convicted of all counts by unanimous decision from the jury.
