The Times - UK (2020-09-05)

the times | Saturday September 5 2020 2GM 23

News

A PR executive who fought for five

years to have charges brought against a

stranger who filmed her as she woke up

naked in a hotel has described her wait

for justice as “appalling”.

Emily Hunt’s tormentor, Christo-

pher Killick, 41, was given a 30-month

community order yesterday, and told to

pay a total of £7,180 including £5,000

compensation. He was also put on the

sex offenders register for five years. He

admitted filming Ms Hunt for 62 sec-

onds as she slept beside him.

Ms Hunt, 41, who has waived her

right to anonymity, has no memory of

how she got to the five-star Town Hall

hotel in east London in May 2015. She

A doctor who stalked a TV explorer

and documentary-maker and left him

so fearful that he decided to sell his

home has been jailed.

Fiza Jabeen, 36, first sent “explicit

and unpleasant” messages to Levison

Wood, 38, on his Instagram and Twit-

ter accounts in April.

She then began obsessively contact-

ing Wood’s friends, family and his ex-

partner on social media and by email,

despite having had a restraining order

imposed on her.

Jabeen, previously a paediatrician at

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital,

was eventually taken into custody

after travelling to the former para-

trooper’s home in Richmond, south-

west London.

Kingston crown court heard that

she had intercepted the star as he was

walking his dog in nearby Bushy Park

and asked if she could come to his

house for a cup of tea and to use the

internet.

Wood, originally from Staffordshire,

made a name for himself through his

documentaries and books about his

hitchhiking journeys spanning several

continents.

Most recently he appeared in the

Channel 4 series Walking With

Elephants, in which he joined

Botswana’s elephants on their 650-

mile migration.

Jabeen, from Harborne, Birming-

ham, admitted harassment and stalk-

ing charges at Westminster magis-

trates’ court on July 15.

The court heard that she had gone

to Wood’s home near Hampton Court

Palace after he secured a restraining

order against her in June.

In a statement, Wood said that he

felt he was “constantly looking over his

shoulder” and he was concerned for

The loneliest rockhopper penguin in

the southern hemisphere is being kept

company by watching footage of dis-

tant relatives on the other side of the

world at Edinburgh Zoo.

Pierre, who is believed to be less than

a year old, recently washed ashore on a

beach near the town of Albany. The

youngster, who became separated from

his parents and colony, is thought to

have completed an epic swim from the

Indian or South Atlantic Ocean before

arriving on the coast of West Australia.

The only northern rockhopper in the

country is being cared for at Perth Zoo.

Peter Ricci, a vet at the conservation

centre, said: “Pierre is by himself and

does get a little lonely at times.

“To help make his life a bit more en-

riching we decided to get other rock-

Lonely penguin consoled by

cousins on other side of world

Doctor jailed for stalking TV explorer

his and his family’s safety as a result of

Jabeen’s actions.

He said: “By her own admission she

is obsessed and her actions demon-

strate that she will stop at nothing to

get what she wants.”

Wood said that he had put his Grade

II-listed house up for sale so that

Jabeen could not track him down

again.

Fiona Dunkley, for the defence, said

that Jabeen was brought up as a “de-

vout Muslim” and had no experience

of relationships with men, leaving her

unable to “control her emotions”.

Jailing Jabeen for 13 months yester-

day, Judge Georgina Kent said:

“Stalking has an extremely detrimen-

tal impact on the victims, their family

and friends, their mental wellbeing

and their ability to get on with their

lives without fear that someone is

going to pop up at any time and cause

them harm or embarrassment.”

Marc Horne

naked in a private room was not an

offence if they had consented to being

seen naked. In January this year the

CPS withdrew its opposition to Ms

Hunt’s claim after a judgment in

another case, which said that non-con-

sensual intimate filming was illegal.

Killick was arrested and charged

with voyeurism in May. He pleaded

guilty last month at Stratford magis-

trates’ court, and was sentenced yester-

day by Judge Louisa Cieciora who said

he had escaped jail by pleading guilty.

“As you said to the probation officer,

you knew it was morally wrong and

deceitful to record Ms Hunt without

her consent,” the judge said. “It was

invasive and taken without the victim’s

knowledge or awareness. You priori-

Fariha Karim had never met or communicated with
Killick. She has alleged that she was
drugged and raped. Killick was first ar-
rested on suspicion of rape, but was re-
leased because of a lack of evidence.
Ms Hunt has previously told The
Times that police, who denied her a full
medical examination when she report-
ed the incident, had “decided I was
making it up... I was a girl that got
drunk, did something she regretted and
lied about it”.
A year later officers told her that
Killick had filmed her, and had told
them that he performed a sex act on her
while she was unconscious.
Ms Hunt urged the Crown Prosecu-
tion Service to charge him with voyeur-
ism, but it said that filming someone

MARK LAING/THE ROYAL PARKS; BRISTOL CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY; ALAMY

Tourism

brings

cemeteries

back to life

A

geing

cemeteries

that were as

quiet as the

grave have

sprung to life thanks to a

rise in “tombstone

tourism”, opening cafés,

building museums and

hosting film screenings

(Kaya Burgess writes).

More than 50 have

been awarded lottery

funding worth a total of

£25 million over the past

decade to transform

their graveyards into

public

spaces and

visitor attractions.

Many more plan to

clear the weeds and

open cafés, shops, visitor

centres and museums to

seize on a “great revival”

in public interest in

cemeteries and a “huge

upsurge” in visitors.

Experts have

attributed the shift to a

rising fascination with

family and local history,

awareness of cemeteries

as oases of greenery in

cities, and less

squeamishness about

death in society.

The National Lottery

Heritage Fund realised

that many historic

cemeteries were in

“incredibly poor

condition” in late 2000

and has worked to

“promote their value as

social history archives,

vital places for urban

nature and as

recreational green

spaces”. It added that the

memorials were

“designed for an

audience”. Many

Victorian cemeteries

were full or near

capacity and needed

new sources of revenue.

Next week, Willesden

Jewish Cemetery,

founded in 1873, will

become the first active

Jewish cemetery to open

as a visitor attraction,

with £1.7 million of

lottery funding and

support from United

Synagogue. A

spokeswoman said there

had been a growing

interest in tombstone

tourism.

The last resting place

of Rosalind Franklin,

whose work was

instrumental in finding

the structure of DNA,

and Kurt Geiger, the

designer, it will open a

“house of life” visitor

centre and run guided

tours.

Brookwood Cemetery

in Surrey plans a

“Museum of Death” and

a café, walking trail and

education centre.

Cemeteries in

Sheffield, Belfast and

Coventry have enjoyed

lottery-funded

restorations and in 2018,

Brompton cemetery in

London spent more than

£6 million building a

café and visitor centre at

a site that was once

overgrown and plagued

by antisocial behaviour.

Bristol’s Arnos Vale

cemetery was one of the

first to be renovated and

now makes more money

from weddings than

from funerals and hosts

cinema screenings,

fitness classes, a shop

and a café. Its bosses

said that they have

increasing numbers of

cemeteries asking how

they can do the same.

Brompton Cemetery in

London provides a green

oasis and offers a café

while Arnos Vale in Bristol

is also a wedding venue

public

tions

tised your own de-

sires without think-

ing of the victim.”

Ms Hunt, who has

suffered post-traumat-

ic stress disorder and has tried to

take her own life since the inci-

dent, said she was “pleased with

the sentence passed by the court

and the powerful comments made by

the judge”. She added: “The recognition

that this was a serious sexual of-

fence and the acknowledge-

ment of the devastating impact

it has had on

my life is

the most

impor-

tant thing.

It is appall-

ing that it

has taken

five years. I

hope that in

future no other victim of a

sexual offence has to go

through what I have expe-

rienced.”

Christopher

Killick filmed

Emily Hunt, who

has no memory

of the events

Woman’s 5-year battle to make voyeur pay

Greg Wilford

hoppers online for him to watch.

Pierre’s been enjoying watching them.”

Edinburgh Zoo has more than 100

rockhopper, king and gentoo penguins.

Kirsty Leighton, of Edinburgh Zoo,

said: “We wish Pierre a speedy recovery

and will be sure to wave next time.”

Northern rockhoppers are endan-

gered, with fewer than 240,300

breeding pairs thought to be left in

the wild.

Danielle Henry, of Perth Zoo, said

Pierre was being nursed back to health,

adding: “His new feathers got halfway

through and stopped. Pierre can’t swim,

he can’t fish for himself. So he needs a

helping hand.”

Pierre is also watching Pingu, the

children’s animation about a mischie-

vous penguin, on an iPad. Ms Henry

said: “He’s absolutely loved it. From his

behaviour we can tell he’s enjoying it.”