A crack addict terrorised his neighbours with a barrage of homophobic abuse because they woke him up in the middle of the day, a court heard today.
Stephen Tems, 37, regularly hurled graphic slurs at Lauren and Hayley Brook and their teenage daughter, who lived in the flat above them in Havelock Road, Brighton.
He also tampered with their doorbell camera, and banged on his ceiling – and even once shouted abuse at the Tesco driver who came to deliver their shopping.
Even after he was arrested and released on police bail with a condition not to enter Brighton and Hove, he returned to the flat.
Tems was being sentenced at Brighton Crown Court today after changing his plea to guilty to three counts of stalking the two women and the teenage girl on the first day of his trial in May.
Two counts of assaulting the teenager were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.
Prosecuting, Tochi Ejimofo said: “Stephen Tems engaged in repeated hostile behaviours, specifically homophobic slurs such as carpet munchers, muff diver and fat cunt.
“This was directed at all three. He told them you had better watch yourself and was caught on Ring doorbell footage saying his mate was coming to smash their face in.
“He shouted to them ‘shut the f*** up you c***s, some of us are tying to sleep’ – this was at 11am.”
The abuse started as soon as Tems moved into the flat with his girlfriend Katie Humphrey in March 2024. He was arrested in October that year, but returned to the flat in breach of his bail conditions the following month.
Ms Ejimofo said Humphrey was given a caution for her part in the harassment.
The court was read victim impact statements from the two women and the girl, all of whom said they had been left traumatised by the ongoing harassment.
The teenager said: “It’s been two years since he was charged. Any time I come home late at night I call my mum as I feel anxious someone is following me.
“For the few months after he left, I would have bad panic attacks. I used to struggle to leave the house in case he would be there.
“The assault also had a massive impact on me and I’m upset I won’t ever get justice for that. I did not want to risk losing it all so I accepted the guilty pleas.”
Both Lauren and Hayley said they had been forced to take time off work to stay at home with the girl, as she was too afraid to be left on her own.
Lauren said when Tems had first started harassing her, she had tried not to show how it affected her, but he then started targeting her family, and threatened to call her work and made false allegations against her.
Hayley said she believed Tems had been dealing drugs from the flat when he moved in and she had raised concerns with the police.
The harassment sparked anxiety, which at one point took her to A&E.
Defending, Justin Ko said Tems had been provoked by noise from the Brooks’ flat, including banging and hoovering.
He also said Tems, who has been in custody since he failed to turn up to his sentencing when it was first scheduled in July, had spent his time in prison coming off drugs and taking courses to help him turn his life around.
Sentencing, Amanda Kelly said: “This was a prolonged and unhappy neighbour relationship. However, it does not excuse your conduct. You engaged in a course of behaviour over months which amounted to stalking and cause serious alarm and distress to your victims.
“Your conduct was persistent. Within the context of stalking offences, it’s not particularly long, but for the people on the receiving end it felt, no doubt, like an eternity.
“It was hostility based on sexual orientation, and that’s a very significant culpability factor.
“The child was particularly affected – anxiety, panic attacks, changes to her behaviour and an adverse impact on her education and day to day life.”
She sentenced Tems to 14 months in prison for each of the stalking offences, to run concurrently, and suspended them for 18 months.
As part of the suspended sentence, she required him to undertake 20 rehabilitation activity days, and imposed a curfew from 9pm to 6am for three months.
She also imposed a ten-year restraining order banning him from contacting the three victims directly or indirectly or entering Brighton and Hove.
She told him: “You have now had a lengthy taste of custody and you know what will await you if you fail to copmly with this suspended sentence.”
