Belfast criminal Edward Stewart with long history of menacing others fails to have jail term cut for terrorising woman he dubbed a ‘slut’

Edward Stewart, 37, claimed the extended term handed down for a campaign which left the woman feeling terrified was manifestly excessive.

But the Court of Appeal backed the decision to impose 20 months custody and a further 24 months on licence because he was deemed a dangerous offender.

Lord Justice Maguire cited Stewart’s treatment of the victim and history of targeting others, including former employers, a landlord and police – on one occasion claiming to be from the IRA.

“This court has no significant doubt that this is a case where the various factors relating to the issue of dangerousness were fully considered,” he confirmed.

In February last year Stewart, with a previous address at Centenary House on Victoria Street, pleaded guilty to charges of harassment and causing the woman to fear violence.

They both worked at a call centre when he started sending her hand-written notes in June 2017, asking if she liked him and if she would be his girlfriend.

Despite requests to stop, the court heard Stewart continued with the messages up to five times a day.

He then became aggressive, threatening and rude towards the woman, calling her a slut or a whore if she was seen in the company of another male colleague.

On one occasion he reacted by punching a computer screen.

“Before long, she viewed herself as being the object of obsessive behaviour on his part with continuing advances and overtures spilling into threats of rape and/or slitting her and/or throwing acid at her face,” Lord Justice Maguire said.

Stewart also allegedly told her that he had been in prison for an acid attack on an ex-girlfriend - an apparent attempt to instil fear.

She lodged a complaint at work about the unwanted contact, but before it could be determined he was sacked for absenteeism.

However, 11 months later the woman received an abusive Facebook message from him which stated: “Me and you are going to have a very interesting conversation the next time I see you. I have been waiting a year to bump into you.”

According to a victim impact statement she was left feeling isolated, scared and anxious by Stewart’s behaviour, and needed her parents to give her lifts to work.

“The threat of acid being thrown in her face terrified her, leading her not to wish to go anywhere alone,” Lord Justice Maguire added.

Stewart’s history of threatening others was also disclosed, including incidents in 2010 after he was sacked by a taxi firm.

He called the company, claimed to be from the IRA and threatened to cut the throat of a female call handler.

The following year he assaulted his former boss and threatened to kill the man’s son.

In February 2016 he threatened to bite off the nose of a security officer at Social Security Agency premises.

Just over a year later a minor disagreement with a probation officer led to Stewart declaring: “I hope you die of cancer and I hope you get raped.”

During subsequent encounters in Belfast city centre he slapped the same officer hard in the back and followed him into a bank, the court heard.

Eventually the officer decided to leave his place of work due to fear.

Further threats were issued to a landlord who had evicted Stewart and to police officers.

In April 2018 he posted a message saying that he hoped they would hang, cut themselves or drink bleach.

Defence lawyers claimed the Extended Custodial Sentence (ECS) imposed on Stewart for the latest offences was “manifestly excessive and wrong in principle”.

But Lord Justice Maguire refused to interfere with the term handed down by the trial judge.

Dismissing the appeal, he said: “The judge’s evaluation, in this court’s view, implicitly if not explicitly, recognises that the standard of seriousness had been met, in the context of the effect of the appellant’s actions (regarding) the victim.”

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