A 66-year-old woman who stalked two librarians who she had accused of having a secret lesbian affair has been issued with restraining orders against her victims.
Louisa Carlton had harassed the two straight, married women, who worked at Beaconsfield Library, by following them, hiding being cars and pillars, and shouting abuse at them.
The widow had denied stalking the two librarians, Dorota Fraczeck-Streeter and Lisa Taylor-Puzey, but following a trial at Amersham Law Courts, the jury returned guilty verdicts on Monday.
Judge Catherine Tulk issued Carlton with restraining orders against her two victims, but she did not receive any further punishment.
On Friday, near the end of the trial, Carlton took to the witness stand to explain her side of the story.
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She claimed that when she visited the library in 2018, Mrs Fraczeck-Streeter would show signs of affection towards her by looking at and touching her breasts, speaking to her with a “gentle voice” and showing signs of jealousy when she was served by other librarians.
She said: “Her eyes focused on my upper breast and down to my ankles. She touched my breast and then said ‘sorry.’”
Carlton, who now lives in Oxford Road, Worthing, in West Sussex, told the jury that when Mrs Taylor-Puzey started working at the library, this affection turned to hardness, and she claimed that the pair conspired to be rude and nasty towards her at the library.
She insisted that she was “highly intuitive” and that these signs led her to suspect that the librarians were lesbian lovers.
She told the jury: “Neither woman has suffered any mental distress. If anyone has been affected, it is I.”
Throughout her evidence, Carlton referred to Mrs Fraczeck-Streeter and Mrs Taylor-Puzey as “the Polish lesbian” and “the unpleasant lesbian” – until she was chided by Judge Heather Norton.
The judge, whose patience wore thin with the witness at times, said: “Stop calling them this, it's pejorative and offensive. We need no editorialising.”
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Earlier in the trial, Mrs Taylor-Puzey told the jury how Carlton had approached her and Mrs Fraczeck-Streeter while they were in her car, opening the door and showering them with abuse.
Describing the incident from her own point of view, Carlton said: “When I went to the car, they had left the door open and I leaned in on the side where Donya (Mrs Fraczeck-Streeter) was sat.
“I just asked why, I wanted to know why. The primal question. And an apology would have been nice.
“I asked her if her husband knew she had been in LTP’s (Mrs Taylor-Puzey’s) car and she said yes.”
Carlton also told the jury that she had spotted a number of suspect items in Mrs Fraczeck-Streeter’s car, driving her suspicion that she and Mrs Taylor-Puzey were lovers.
The court heard how she had seen “a pair of handcuffs”, “little bottles – I don’t know what was in them”, “a towel” and “hygienic material”.
She also described a “square” object which she had once seen in the toilets in Harrods.
“I have been going to Harrods for years,” she said. “And just before this, I was in the WC and near the loo roll was this square. I thought my gosh, that’s what they have got in the car.”
She also detailed “leather stuff” and “latex gloves”.
Throughout the trial, prosecutor John Carmichael denied that the two librarians were in any kind of romantic relationship.
In a fragmented and at times bizarre address to the jury, Carlton also referenced the painting The Birth of Venus by Botticelli, claimed she “was not homophobic”, and stated that “the truth will come out.”
She added: “They have made me to look the villain and that they are completely innocent when they are not. They are not innocent.”
Earlier on Friday, the jury heard from the officer in the case, PC Bryony Powell, that police had also arrested Carlton at Great Missenden Library in December 2020.
The court heard that after she had been charged with stalking, one of Carlton’s bail conditions prohibited her from visiting any library in Buckinghamshire. Following this visit, Carlton was arrested and spent a night in a cell in Banbury, Oxfordshire.
After considering the evidence, the jury returned with a guilty on both counts of stalking involving harm or distress.
Judge Tulk issued Carlton with restraining orders preventing her from contacting either victim, but stopped short of any further punishment by granting her a conditional discharge, meaning Carlton could be brought before the courts and punished in future should she commit any further offences.
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