A notorious stalker, jailed for breaching a lifetime restraining order, is taking legal action against his long-suffering victim, claiming his reputation is being ruined by her online postings.
Ex- Sky News producer Elliot Fogel, 35, discovered yesterday fresh charges against him have been dropped after the CPS took expert advice from a Human Rights lawyer.
Fogel, of White Lodge Close, Isleworth, West London had been arrested and charged again after his representative contacted 35 year-old complementary therapist Claire Waxman.
This appeared to put him in breach of the order, imposed in 2005 by Brent Magistrates' Court, which prohibited Fogel, or anybody acting on his behalf to contact Mill Hill, North London resident Mrs Waxman.
Before the CPS sought expert advice Judge Shaun Lyons announced: "By initiating civil proceedings he has breached that restraining order. The actions have caused someone else to contact a protected person."
He was described as "obsessive" when jailed for four months last year for a seven-year stalking campaign, which included hundreds of late-night phone calls, breaking into Mrs Waxman's car and repeatedly following her.
A Judge ruled Fogel, formerly of Edgware, North London had caused her "mental harm" and a search of his computer revealed the defendant had Googled his victim over 40,000 times in just twelve months.
At Wood Green Crown Court on Wednesday the CPS dropped two charges that Fogel breached the restraining order on or before November 17, last year by initiating civil proceedings and attempting to retrieve material from Mrs Waxman on or before November 1.
"She is writing about me on a website and readers are invited to leave comments," complained Fogel outside court. "All I am trying to do is bring proceedings that stop this."
CPS lawyer Martha Godwin announced: "An issue was raised during this case, which required the CPS to take some expert legal opinion.
"The opinion confirmed that a restraining order cannot be used to stop someone from accessing civil courts as happened in this case. This meant we could not pursue this prosecution and we offered no evidence."
Fogel developed an unhealthy interest in Mrs Waxman when they were both college students in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, where she had to continually tell him to leave her alone.
After leaving college in 1993 she heard nothing for ten years until receiving a dinner invitation from Fogel, which she declined.
A few months later, in December 2003, Fogel was spotted jogging on the spot outside her home and spent more and more time loitering around her workplace.
He even posed as a prospective parent at the nursery Mrs Waxman's daughter attended, paid for background searches on her husband Marc and her father and collected her wedding photos.
She was forced to move home five times, developed an eating disorder and claims stress caused by Fogel caused a miscarriage.
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