Keelie Murphy, a woman who was repeatedly jailed for harassing her childhood friend has been imprisoned again.
Gatekeepers News reports that Murphy was sent back to the prison for obsessively contacting her as soon as she was released.
She had already been jailed three times in the past for constantly pestering Gemma Ellison despite a restraining order preventing further contact.
Nevertheless, each time she was released from prison, Murphy bombarded Ellison’s workplace with phone calls.
The duo had been friends since the age of 10 but the relationship ‘soured’ after Murphy, ‘developed an infatuation’ with Ms Ellison, a court heard.
The two had not spoken for many years but got back in touch in 2017.
In 2020, Murphy was convicted of harassment and banned from going to Ellison’s company Ellison Motors for five years.
Later that year she was jailed for 12 further weeks after breaching her restraining order five times, calling Ellison more than 200 times in just three days.
In January 2021, she was jailed for another 10 weeks for breaking the order again and immediately after being released she breached it five more times by repeatedly contacting Ellison.
Murphy was jailed again for two years in September 2021 – she was released in December but recalled on licence in April.
Murphy who regained freedom on April 29 this year, ‘immediately started contacting [Ellison] again at her place of work’, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
Her obsessive contact with Ellison ranged from ‘expressions of love and romance to threats of violence and abuse’.
She told the mother-of-three she was going to ‘take the consequences into her own hands’ and warned ‘watch what happens’.
Although most of the calls were ignored by Ellison, they caused disruption at her business by blocking up the phone lines.
The police advised the complainant to record the barrage of calls, and she did so with one on the afternoon of May 26. In it, Murphy told her ‘she had ruined her life’ and called her ‘derogatory names’, including a ‘d******d’.
A statement read out to the court on Ellison’s behalf said, “I get constant migraines after a day of her ringing. I go home to the kids feeling sad and deflated. She turns horrible so quickly if you tell her to stop ringing. I wonder what it will take her to stop.
“It’s be going on for years and years now. It’s having a huge effect on me and the business. Every time Keelie is let out of prison, she starts back up immediately on her release. Keelie would not just call up once, she would call from the minute we open up until we close.
“It’s caused me nothing but stress and anxiety. I constantly think about what’s next. It makes me feel mentally drained when all I want to do is come to work and run my business.”
Stuart Nolan, defending, said, “It’s a very distressing case. One can only feel for the victim in this matter.
“There are serious mental health issues here. At the root of all this is this woman’s obsession, which seems to have become troubling to society when she’s in drink and drugs.”
Murphy, who was admitted harassment and was jailed for 30 months, got an extended indefinite restraining order, and she was told to pay a victim surcharge.
Sentencing, Recorder Tim Harrington said, “Previous sentences, whether they be suspended sentences or prison sentences, have not deterred you. You were on licence and knew you were prohibited from contacting her, yet you persisted.
“This was a very serious and persistent breach, and it did cause serious distress. This was part of a persistent pattern of conduct.
“It’s up to you. If you do what the order says you must do, you won’t get into trouble again.
“If you breach that order, you will undoubtedly be prosecuted again and the sentences are just going to get longer and longer.”
