Told builder she would ‘get him done for rape’

Carina Loser, 56, of 2, Valnord Hill, St Peter Port, admitted pursuing a course of conduct against him which she knew amounted to harassment.

Prosecuting officer Sonia Cheema told the Magistrate’s Court how the defendant had asked the man to do building work for her last November and a contract was drawn up.

After a month she paid him £12,000, then the man was signed off work because he was suffering from tennis elbow. The sickness period was extended before Guernsey went back into lockdown.

The defendant thought the man was making excuses. She messaged him accusing him of being a fraudster, called his boss to say he had not turned up for work, and said she would ‘get him done for rape’.

Police warned her about her behaviour and she refrained for a while but started again a few days later. When police spoke to her, she said the man had been contacting her. She had sent him 17 messages after the warning, which made the basis of the prosecution case.

In a victim impact statement, the man said the defendant’s suggestion that she would ‘get him done for rape’ had been terrible, and he wished that he had never agreed to do work for her.

About a month later, while the defendant was on bail, police were called to Valnord Hill shortly before 5pm following reports that a car had been damaged. Loser was in the area, having damaged her own car and a motorbike. It was clear she was intoxicated and after making threats she was sectioned and taken to hospital. There she was abusive towards staff and ignored requests to moderate her behaviour.

A doctor concluded she was not having a mental health episode but could not be formally assessed, so she was arrested on suspicion of behaving in a disorderly manner. She admitted the offence in court.

Advocate Chris Green said his client thought the builder had taken advantage of her and she intended to try to recover the money via the civil court. She denied telling him he was not allowed to finish the work as was claimed.

She was trying to secure justice but did it in the wrong way.

In relation to the disorderly behaviour, she was upset because her dogs had gone missing.

Her upset was compounded when one police officer told her the dogs had been recovered, before another said that was wrong.

A report noted that there had been a significant decline in her mental health since the dogs went missing.

Judge Gary Perry said he noted that the defendant had been in custody since the start of April and gave her credit for her early guilty pleas.

He jailed her for four months for the harassment and imposed a restraining order for two years. One month concurrent was imposed for the disorderly behaviour.

The offences put her in breach of a community service order that was meted by the court last year for an assault on police. That was revoked and the three-month prison alternative was activated to run consecutively.

She was also in breach of two probation orders that were meted for disorderly behaviour. She was re-sentenced on those to one month, concurrent to each, but consecutive to the rest, making the total sentence eight months.