Woman ‘terrorised’ and mentally tortured by stalker
The latest victim of Tony Indar Chand’s stalking has said she felt terrorised and mentally tortured, and feared for the safety of herself and her children.
Forty-four-year-old Chand’s intense stalking behaviour has already led to two jail terms, but today he was sentenced to community work and supervision on a charge of intimidation.
Christchurch District Court Judge Stephen O’Driscoll warned Chand that any further offending against this 43-year-old woman would land him in jail and demanded to know that he understood. Chand nodded.
He ordered Chand to pay $1000 emotional harm reparations to the woman but refused to let him write her a letter of apology. He told defence counsel Clare Yardley: “I want to cut all ties and bonds between the two of them, and not give him any hint that there is still some type of relationship.”
The woman was not at court for his sentencing where probation recommended in his pre-sentence report that he be jailed.
The woman had written in her victim impact report that Chand’s conduct effectively terrorised her and she felt mentally tortured, abused, and stressed. “She was terrified for her safety and her children’s safety,” said Judge O’Driscoll.
He told Chand: “She wants to get on with her life and to have nothing further to do with you.” The woman has got a protection order against him. He will breach the order if he makes any contact with her.
Chand was jailed for three years in 2007 on a charge of burglary and assault with intent to commit sexual violation when he broke into the house of a woman who had earlier told him she wanted nothing to do with him, and attacked her.
In 2010 he was jailed for six months for stalking and terrorising his ex-girlfriend by text. He was assessed at that time as a high risk of re-offending.
Mrs Yardley said Chand had now been getting help for his stalking and obsessive compulsive behaviour, and “his inability to learn and understand that no means no.”
“He perhaps has a personality where he finds it hard to let go,” she told the court.
Chand, a supervisor, met the latest victim on an online dating site, and they exchanged messages and then had a short relationship. The woman ended it after two weeks when she found him “possessive and controlling”.
Chand then bombarded her with more than 80 text messages over eight days and stalked her by driving past her home and workplace, and confronting her near work. He was seen at her house.
When he pleaded guilty, the court was told that he had “failed to read the signs”. The signs included the woman screaming at him and calling the police.
Judge O’Driscoll said even the maximum prison term available would see Chand released in six weeks, so he imposed 100 hours of community work, supervision for 12 months with a special condition that he attend assessment, treatment, or counselling as directed, and pay $1000 to the victim.
“I want this sentence to be treated as a warning,” he told Chand.
Category: Focus
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