An “obsessed” postgraduate student made a University of York lecturer’s life a “living hell” by stalking her for over eight years, infiltrating one of her online lectures uninvited and camping outside her home for days.
Elizabeth Wright, 36, travelled by train from her home in the East Midlands to the female lecturer’s home in York and left her creepy letters after setting up camp outside the property, York Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Kelly Clarke said that Wright, who was a PhD student at the University of York, was under a restraining order at the time with strict instructions not to contact the lecturer or travel into York.
In January, Wright – branded an “ever-present menace” to the beleaguered victim – was given an 18-month community order at York Magistrates’ Court for an eight-year stalking campaign between July 2017 and November 2025.
As part of that order, she was banned from contacting the named victim, who was a doctor in her academic field, and travelling into York.
But Wright took a train from her home in Leicestershire on 17 April and turned up in York, where she remained for about five days while camping outside the lecturer’s home.
Ms Clarke said that Wright – who was a PhD student when the victim was lecturing at York University – got to know the lecturer during her studies and was initially “friendly and amenable” towards her, but she then became “obsessed” with her after the victim “took her under her wing”.
“(The victim) would stay behind late and the defendant would go into her office and (the lecturer) started getting a little bit nervous about the defendant attending, and made the university aware, so they asked (Wright) not to go and see her out of university times,” added Ms Clarke.
However, the “obsessed” and determined PhD student took no heed of this warning and began a stalking campaign which would last more than eight years.
This led to a restraining order being imposed at the magistrates’ court in January which Wright also wilfully transgressed, first by sneakily logging on to an international seminar given by the lecturer on 17 April.
Wright infiltrated the lecture, which was beamed out abroad, by using a slight distortion of her first name as her log-in profile.
“(The victim) could see she was there and found it disturbing,” said Ms Clarke.
“It completely put her off her stride.”
‘I’m the abuser’
Two days later, police went to the victim’s home to take a statement from her and on their arrival, they found a letter on the doorstep which Wright had left for the victim.
On the letter, Wright had written: “I’m the abuser but I feel like the victim.”
In it, she also “acknowledged the extent of her obsession and being terrified for the victim”.
In another letter left for the victim, Wright said she was “going to get myself arrested again to try and made it stop”.
Two days later, while still camped outside the lecturer’s home, Wright was captured on the property’s CCTV and Ring Doorbell cameras going to and from the house on three separate occasions in the space of half an hour in broad daylight.
The lecturer’s husband had been working from home that day and noticed a police car parked outside.
When the police vehicle left, Wright appeared within minutes and left a letter while the victim’s husband was on the phone to police.
Officers returned to the house and arrested Wright outside the property. She admitted sneaking into the online lecture and said she had been “monitoring the (victim’s) activities online”.
She said she had infiltrated the lecture on her laptop while she was living at her parents’ home in Leicestershire.
“She said she knew (her behaviour) was wrong but she couldn’t stop herself,” added Ms Clarke.
“She said she had tried to seek mental-health support from her GP.”
Wright – whose address before she was remanded in custody was Priest Meadow, Fleckney, Leicestershire – was charged with four counts of breaching a restraining order and admitted the offences. She appeared for sentence today ((10 July) after being remanded in Low Newton women’s prison.
Defence barrister Tonicha Allen said that Wright had a “number of complex mental-health conditions that all operate together at the same time”.
She said these conditions had been exacerbated by Wright’s alcoholism.
“Clearly, this is a woman who cannot stop what she is doing on her own (without medical treatment),” added Ms Allen.
She said that Wright, who had shown “sincere remorse” for her hounding of the lecturer, had currently no home to go to upon her eventual release from prison because her parents didn’t want her back due to her behaviour.
Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, told Wright he had made the victim’s life a “living hell” for over eight years.
He added: “You affected her work, you affected her sleep, you affected her relationship. You were an ever-present menace to her mental wellbeing.”
He said that although Wright clearly had mental-health issues, a psychiatric report recommended that she receive treatment in prison rather than a hospital or a community setting.
The judge added: “You are assessed (by the Probation Service) as posing a high risk of serious harm to (the victim) if you were allowed in the community and quite frankly your risk is not manageable in the community.
“Having received a community order in January, (by) 17 April you were at it again and it was very thorough: you stalked your victim online; you were watching what was going on.
“(The victim) was giving an international lecture and you, uninvited, came on the screen as an attendee. That was seen by (the victim). She was so rattled by it that she doesn’t know whether that seminar has affected her career.
“It’s obvious she was not performing as well as she could (in the lecture) and it was an important moment for her in her career.”
He added: “Each one of these breaches, given the shocking history of your stalking this woman, caused (the victim) immense mental anguish, pain and fear, wondering if it will ever end.”
He said the eight-year stalking campaign had been “absolutely devastating to this woman’s life, life-changing”.
Wright, who was expressionless throughout the hearing, showed no reaction as the judge jailed her for three-and-a-half years for breaching the restraining order and a further four months, to run consecutively, for breaching the community order imposed in January.
She was told she would likely serve half of the total three years and 10 months behind bars before being released on prison licence.
The judge made a new restraining order banning Wright from contacting the victim for life.
