Woman tells jury how Hove man stalked and harassed her

A woman has told a crown court jury how a man from Hove stalked and harassed her even after he was arrested by police.

Malcolm Howell also known as John Dory or Fish

Nadia Iran, 30, who works for the post office in Portslade, said that John Dory, 53, threw bricks through her window, damaged her car and tried to block her from going to work.

She told Brighton Crown Court that Dory, also known as Malcolm Howell and as Fish, left her in fear after he manhandled her in the street and after aggressive outbursts.

She said that he bombarded her with phone calls and text messages and told her: “You just don’t know how to release your feelings towards me.”

Ms Iran said: “We had only ever been friends.”

She admitted under cross-examination that she had got to know him when she bought drugs from him and that she even drove him around while he was dealing.

But she told the jury that Dory, formerly of Mainstone Road, Hove, had “ruined the last 17 months of my life”, adding: “I’ve been very scared. He was very angry.”

Kerry Moore, prosecuting, said that he became angry when she got back together with her former partner although they had since split up again.

Dory, the jury was told, turned up outside Ms Iran’s house in the early hours of the morning more than once and threw stones at her window and shouted her name continuously.

She said: “I wouldn’t look out because I didn’t want him to know I was there. I was too scared. His tone was quite aggressive.”

After he tried to stop her going into work – only failing after she called for help from a passing stranger who stepped in – she said: “He was waiting outside my work and he’d cut his arm. He said he had mental health problems.

“I felt bad. I wanted to help him (but) I was quite intimidated.”

Dory was accused of letting the tyres down on her car, breaking the windscreen wipers and on one occasion of attaching a bike lock to one of her wheels.

And, the jury was told, he daubed messages in the street where she lived and along her route to work.

Brighton Magistrates’ Court

She is one of two women that Dory is charged with stalking last summer, allegedly putting them in fear of violence.

He is also charged with causing criminal damage to the front door at the home of the second woman, 34-year-old Jemma Turner, from Woodingdean.

Kevin Light, defending, said that Dory had lent £7,000 to Ms Iran to buy a car – a grey BMW – and that she was meant to pay him back but didn’t.

She said that he gave her about £3,000 as part of her 30th birthday present and that she tried to repay him but he wouldn’t take the money.

The pair went to Newcastle together to buy the car, the jury was told.

Mr Light said that Dory had tried to arrange counselling sessions “because he has issues” and that Ms Iran had said that she would go along.

She said that she would have gone only if someone else went too, adding: “He would generally be very aggressive towards people and shout but he was never violent.”

The trial before Judge Anne Arnold at Brighton Crown Court continues.