| |
Asbo calls time on phone pest
A CHURCH Street market trader who harassed hundreds of women on his mobile phone has been banned from withholding his number when making calls for four years.
Paul Kavanagh, of Westbourne Park Road, pleaded guilty to causing a public nuisance contrary to common law when he appeared at City of Westminster Magistrates Court in July.
The unusual Asbo starts when he gets out of jail in two and a half years time. The 41-year-old carer from Paddington, had pestered receptionists with phone calls over two years.
An investigation by Westminster police and BT was launched following complaints from female receptionists working at a gym in the Power Vibe Studios Westbourne Park Villas.
The gym had received hundreds of calls of “a disturbing and sexual nature” from an anonymous man.
Kavanagh, the court was told, purported to be an employee of Marks and Spencer conducting a survey on underwear.
At no time had Kavanagh worked for the chain store. He engaged women initially in conversations about their choice of undergarments, asking increasingly more sexually explicit questions.
Alarmed by the repeated calls, the victims began to record the conversations and notified police who in turn liaised with the BT nuisance call centre.
DC Annabelle Hardy, who is based at Paddington Green CID, said: “Many of his victims were left traumatised with some no longer wanting to answer the phone. Others have been left wondering whether he was outside their homes or places of work waiting for them.” |
 |
|
| |
| |
