Leeds Crown Court
Vile stalker repeatedly smeared faeces on neighbour's mailbox in disgusting campaign of abuse
Michael McFarlane has been jailed for the six-month long offending targeting his neighbour in Leeds city centre flats
Stephanie FinneganCourt reporter
Michael McFarlane was jailed for five years and three months (Image: West Yorkshire Police)
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A stalker repeatedly smeared faeces on a neighbour's mailbox in a Leeds city centre block of flats during an unprovoked campaign of abuse.
Michael McFarlane threatened to burn the woman's home down, smashed her window and physically attacked her son.
Leeds Crown Court heard he caused her post to stop being delivered to her mail box in the housing association flats on Cross York Street.
The 36-year-old was jailed for five years and three months today (Monday) after a jury convicted him of stalking, perverting the course of justice and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The stalking took place over a six-month period between July 2018 and January 2019.
The defendant rang the woman's doorbell at all hours of the day and night and verbally abused her.
He threw eggs at her flat's windows, emptied rubbish bins outside her home and tried to get her tenancy ended.
McFarlane found out where the woman worked and hung around outside her workplace and followed her.
He also told police that the woman had committed a racially aggravated offence against him.
McFarlane punched and kicked the woman's son during an attack in Leeds city centre on October 12, 2018.
During the trial, he claimed other people had sent emails that he had sent and claimed that clear CCTV footage showing him committing the offences was not of him but someone posing as him to set him up.
He also made false allegations against the Housing Association and other organisations.
Flats at Cross York Street in Leeds
McFarlane, who later moved in with his dad in Elford Place, Harehills, Leeds, has 11 previous convictions, including criminal damage in relation to defecating in a lift in the flats.
Kitty Colley, mitigating, said a number of deaths in McFarlane's family had a significant effect on his mental health and he distanced himself from his family by living in Leeds city centre.
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The barrister said McFarlane started to display paranoid behaviour after using cannabis.
Sentencing, Judge Neil Clark told him: "This offending is among the worst and most vile that I have come across."
Judge Clark imposed an indefinite restraining order banning McFarlane from contacting the woman and her son.
Leeds city centre
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