Chess coach jailed for stalking, harassing pregnant woman

Chess coach jailed for stalking and harassing pregnant woman

For stalking and harassing a lady in her 20s, Paul Keevil, a chess coach in the UK, received a sentence of 28 months in jail. Keevil allegedly started blackmailing the woman after they had a history of sexual encounters before she chose to start a new relationship and get pregnant. He called her a sex worker in an attempt to embarrass her in public.

The woman, a college student, is said to have met him on Seeking Arrangement in 2018. He threatened her when she began dating someone else and kept sending her money after their brief relationship ended.

According to one message, he said to her, "The best thing you can do right now is say ok and that means sleeping with each other (willingly), it means flirting with each other and it means nice messages and emojis. And yes it means telling a few people we're together. If you do that, any threats."

The victim also claimed that he called the hospital and pretended to be the baby's father, which made her suicidal. "His behaviour is so obsessive. He genuinely believes that I am his girlfriend no matter how many times I say ‘No'," she said.

"He is that obsessive I believe that he will either rape me or kill me and this is making me sick and exhausted. I have a baby and I am scared for his safety. I am also scared that if Paul sees me in public with the child he will snatch my baby to get me to speak to him," she said.

Keevil's actions are also said to have caused the woman's partner to leave her.

The judge told Keevil," You subjected the complainant to a sustained course of conduct which was aimed at pressuring her into resurrecting an intimate relationship with you and to demand repayment of monies which you had previously gifted to her.."

"You consistently refused to take no for an answer – you were effectively blackmailing her. She has found herself almost unable to cope with life and has been driven to consider suicide as the only way out of a set of circumstances which you have imposed upon her by your obsessive and unrelenting behaviour towards her. She has described that her life has become a nightmare from which even now she can see little escape. "