Wife is cleared of harassing her estranged husband over bitter divorce after he claimed he was ‘threatened and intimidated’ when she emailed him at work four times ‘to clear the air’
- Sarah-Jane Woodford, 45, was charged for harassing her ex-husband via email
- Cordialities vanished when Lee Woodford, 50, refused contact with his ex-wife
- Mr Woodford claims she emailed and rang his work four times and visited twice
- Mrs Woodford left her husband in December 2021 after a ‘difficult year’
A wife was cleared of harassment after sending her ex-husband four ‘threatening’ emails to his work address in the midst of their bitter divorce.
Sarah-Jane Woodford, 45, from Ellesmere Port, insisted she had been engaging in a marital ‘argument’ and not ‘abuse’.
But her husband, Lee Woodford, 50, claimed he had been left ‘threatened and intimidated’ when she emailed him after weeks of arguing.
In total, she emailed him at work four times, phoned him four times and twice visited him at his home claiming she had post for him.
Sarah-Jane Woodford, 45, was charged with harassment after her husband, Lee Woodford, 50, claimed he had been left ‘threatened and intimidated’ by her constant attempts to reach out
Mrs Woodford was later questioned by police before she was ordered to face court charged with harassment without violence, which has a maximum sentence of six months in jail.
The situation began when Mrs Woodford sent an email to her estranged husband’s workplace, a software firm in Chester, saying: ‘Would you be happy to meet up to clear the air? Take Care. SJ x.’
When he asked her not to contact him at work, she replied: ‘Just remember your work email is monitored. Maybe you should do the right thing. I will contact you by whatever means if you block me if we need to communicate with each other. It’s not all on your terms.’
At Warrington magistrates’ court, Mr Woodford told the hearing about the distress he felt from the emails: ‘I considered matters had taken a more sinister turn and I felt that there was nothing to be gained from messages that were maybe abusive and confrontational between us.
Mrs Woodford was cleared of all charges at Warrington magistrates’ court following the seven-month legal order
‘So I said we should only be having contact regarding the divorce.’
When asked about her request to ‘clear the air’, he added: ‘I think that was crossing a boundary. I did not want my personal life or anything to do with the relationship known in my work. It was a monitored email. I did feel it was an intrusion on me.
‘I am a recovering alcoholic and I thought her subsequent reply might be a threat, making comments about my alcoholism in the past.
‘I was in jeopardy with my work at the time and I have since lost that job. I just thought it was an invasion of my privacy.
He added: ‘When you split up you expect it’s never going to be a nice situation but when she refers to things I was buying, cars on the drive and the email to work threatening to let them know things about me, it made me feel intimidated and harassed.’
Following the seven-month legal ordeal, Mrs Woodford, of Little Sutton, Ellesmere Port, sobbed as she was cleared of charges to cheers from the public gallery.
Mr Woodford said that her attempts to contact him at work through monitored emails felt like ‘an intrusion’ and ‘an invasion of my privacy’
The couple had previously ended their seven-year marriage in December 2021 after a ‘difficult year’.
However, they were still bickering after Mr Woodford blocked his ex-wife’s mobile phone and accused her of ‘swanning around Thailand with another bloke and cheating on him’.
In turn, she accused him of having £10,000 worth of dental work done in Turkey whilst providing her with just a lampshade, an ironing board and no money in maintenance.
She reprimanded him for messaging her 13-year-old daughter from a previous relationship and a family friend’s 14-year-old daughter.
He also removed her access to an iCloud account containing family photographs, including pictures of their wedding.
Mrs Woodford said: ‘I was devastated. Thousands of my memories on my phone had just gone and I wanted to ask him about the photos.
‘I wanted to clear the air. I was exhausted from all the arguing. We’re not together anymore so there’s no need.’
The ongoing argument between the pair has been described as ‘tit-for-tat’ and further application from Mr Woodford for a restraining order was rejected as ‘unnecessary’
Prosecutor Simon Leong said Mrs Woodford had been ‘nasty, unpleasant and threatening’ and added: ‘She has pursued a course of conduct that has not only amounted to harassment, but to stalking as well.’
But defence lawyer Peter Barnett said: ‘Where is the abuse? It’s an argument, it’s not abuse.’
He added: ‘It’s tit-for-tat. What’s worse, him saying that she was cheating on him with another man. She received no notification from police, saying: “Do not contact him”, which used to be the position.
‘She has never been told not to contact him other than from him, who has been blocking her and unblocking her on a regular basis.’
Acquitting Mrs Woodford, chair of the bench, Elizabeth Shone said: ‘We accept her evidence which was credible and consistent whilst we reject the evidence of Mr Woodford, which was inconsistent.’
A further application from the prosecution for a restraining order was rejected as ‘unnecessary’.