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'Obsessed' woman stalked anti-paedophile campaigner, court hears

An 'obsessed' woman embarked on a personal campaign of internet stalking against an anti-paedophile campaigner, a court has heard.

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Penny Mellor is accused of carrying out cyber attacks in tweets, emails and a blog.

The 53-year-old from Wolverhampton has gone on trial at Chelmsford Crown Court.

The opening day of the trial heard of the alleged 'bile' she aimed at Shy Keenan, from near Colchester.

Mellor claimed that Ms Keenan had fabricated an account of her childhood sexual abuse in her 2008 book Broken, and that she was a fraudster and attention seeker.

Shy Keenan

Ms Keenan, who describes herself as a justice campaigner and an advocate for victims through her organisation Phoenix Post, used to be a Sun columnist and revealed her early life on a BBC Newsnight programme.

The revelation led to her stepfather Stanley Claridge and others being tried in 2002 and found guilty of sexually abusing Ms Keenan, the court heard.

Campaigner Sara Payne, the mother of murdered Sarah Payne, works with Ms Keenan in the Phoenix organisation.

Mellor, of Coven Mill Close, Coven, denies stalking Ms Keenan and causing her serious alarm or distress between 1 January and 16 March 2013 by sending tweets, publishing statements about her in emails sent to work associates and carrying out a course of conduct which had a substantial effect on Ms Keenan's day to day activities.

Prosecutor Tony Abell, opening the case to the jury, said the law against cyber stalking via social media under which Mellor was being tried only came into effect in January 2013.

He said Mellor appeared 'to have developed something of an obsession with Shy Keenan and embarked upon a very personal campaign against her'.

He said the tweets were personal and offensive and continued: "She has accused her repeatedly of lying in the book Broken.

"She has suggested Ms Keenan has groomed individuals, implied that she suffers from Munchausen's By Proxy and referred to her post traumatic stress disorder.

"Emails contain private information which Shy Keenan regards as sensitive, including copies of marriage certificates, addresses and the like."

Mr Abell said Ms Keenan felt concerned about her own and her family's personal safety because the information might help other people with grudges against her.

She had installed extra security and had had to go back on anti-depressants.

In 1998-99 Mellor and Ms Keenan were in close communication but they fell out. Ms Keenan thought that Mellor's work might be offering support to real child abusers.

The two women didn't have any contact again until late 2012.

Mr Abell said the trigger was Ms Keenan writing in her Sun column in October 2012, in the recent wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal, that she had mentioned to Esther Rantzen many years before of rumours about Savile's inappropriate behaviour.

Mellor then began tweeting that Ms Keenan "had told lies in her book Broken", said the prosecutor.

Mellor emailed recipients including the BBC, Newsnight, the Sun, the Guardian, Broken's publisher Hodder & Stoughton and Ms Keenan's literary agent, appealing to them to "investigate" her claims of inaccuracies in Broken.

There were 239 tweets from January to March 2013.

Mellor was given a verbal warning by Essex Police in December 2012 but after a brief respite, the cyber attacks began again in January.

She was arrested on 15 March 2013. Mellor told police her motive was to get Ms Keenan to stop what she was doing.

The trial, which is expected to last about two weeks, continues.

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