Woman used Clare's Law to expose Wakefield ex's stalking past after she ditched him

The woman went to the police and under Clare’s Law - which enables information to be disclosed to a victim about their partner's previous abusive offending - found that joiner Jamie Asquith had been prosecuted previously for stalking in 2022.

The scheme is named after Batley-born Clare Wood, who was murdered by her abusive ex-boyfriend in 2009. The law came into effect in 2014.

Leeds Crown Court heard that Asquith and his latest victim had met on an app in January of this year. In March they went for a night out in Pontefract, but when she met a male friend and hugged him, Asquith pulled her to one side and said he did not want her talking to other men.

He went outside and came back into the pub five minutes later, before grabbing the woman by the arm. She then hid in the toilets until he left. Later in the evening she saw him again and he apologised, but he was then thrown out of a nightclub for fighting.

The 31-year-old began messaging and phoning the woman, prosecutor Ashleigh Metcalfe told the court. When she got home from her night out, she found that a window at her home had been put through by Asquith.

He continued to message her on Snapchat and TikTok, and liked all of her photos on Facebook. He even turned up in his van while she was on a night out to give her a lift home, even though it had not been arranged.

The next day she had 10 missed calls from him after she stayed at her friend’s out of fear. She could also see on the Snapchat map that he was on the street.

He sent her a Pandora necklace in the post, and when he he came to her home he left £65 under her TV after she had mentioned her rent had increased.

Asquith parked outside her gym at Xscape in Castleford while she was there, and was at Asda later when she was shopping. The woman then went to the police in which she inquired about Asquith’s past.

He was convicted of stalking a female without fear of violence from April 2022. For his latest offending, Asquith, of Post Office Road, Featherstone, admitted stalking that caused serious alarm or distress, criminal damage for the broken window and assault by beating for grabbing her during their visit to the pub.

He appeared in court via video link from HMP Leeds where he has been held on remand.

Don’t miss a single thing when it comes to news across Leeds, sign up for the Yorkshire Evening Post’s free daily newsletter today

Mitigating, Christopher Morton said that Asquith’s best mitigation was his early guilty pleas and “fully accepted” the Crown’s case. He said: “In his mind he has the determination to change his behaviour in relationships which has been, quite frankly, poor in the past.”

Judge Geoffrey Marson KC described it as a “troubling and frightening time” for the victim. He said that “whatever treatment” Asquith had after his last conviction for stalking, it had “little or no effect”.

He gave him 12 months’ jail and a five-year restraining order to keep him away from the woman.