Entertainment
Pussycat Doll Ashley Roberts ‘didn’t feel safe’ around man who believed he was her boyfriend-Kitty Chrisp-Entertainment – Metro
The Pussycat doll appeared on video link in court.
Ashley appeared in court via video link (Picture: Neil Mockford/GC Images)
Pussycat Dolls star Ashley Roberts said the ‘scary’ behaviour of a man she has accused of stalking made her feel ‘very uncomfortable,’ a court has heard.
Lewis Langley, 47, was given a restraining order after blowing kisses at the former Strictly Come Dancing star, 41, outside her workplace at Global Radio in Leicester Square, central London.
He was also accused of repeatedly turning up to sit outside and stare at an address in Borough, central London, where he thought Roberts lived.
Outside of her work, security guards became so accustomed to seeing him they nicknamed Langley ‘the martial artist’, as he would often perform exercise routines, including high kicks, jogging on the spot and diving headers.
Croydon Crown Court heard how Langley thought Roberts was communicating with him through social media ‘in her own special way’.
Appearing by video call on Thursday, the singer said she came across Langley over a dozen times between May and October last year, and each occasion made her ‘very uncomfortable’.
The singer joined the Pussycat Dolls in the early 2000s (Picture: Peter Kramer/Getty Images)
The Don’t Cha hitmaker said: ‘His behaviour was scary, smiling to himself, blowing kisses.’
This was not Roberts’ first legal battle with Langley, as he was arrested in August last year and detained under the Mental Health Act.
The police told Roberts he had mental health issues, after he claimed to be in a ‘romantic relationship’ with the musician.
But Langley once again returned to the radio station two months later to find security measures had been upped as Roberts was escorted to her car.
The former Pussycat Doll is often seen around central London, as she works in the area (Picture: Neil Mockford/GC Images)
‘I got in the car and the car started to drive along,’ Roberts said. ‘I looked to my right and he was standing on the sidewalk blowing me kisses.
‘He was blowing them at the window to my car.’
The court heard how Langley’s behaviour made the singer feel ‘uncomfortable walking around’.
‘I was looking over my shoulder just to make sure he was not around or following me,’ she recalled.
Hesham Puri, defending, argued that although Langley’s behaviour was ‘odd’, ‘unattractive’ and ‘irritating’, he never tried to approach or talk to Roberts and it did not cause the ‘serious alarm or distress’ necessary to find him guilty of stalking.
Langley denied stalking Roberts, and as there was no further evidence available, he was subsequently acquitted on the grounds that stalking is a ‘very serious offence’ and must be proven to a high standard, which the prosecution ‘failed to reach’.
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But the judge did present Langley with a three-year restraining order, which banned him from contacting Roberts and going within 50 metres of Global Radio.
Langley has been remanded in custody awaiting sentencing for a breach of a non-molestation order in relation to his ex-partner.
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