A 79-year-old Suffolk man has been found guilty of repeatedly breaching a restraining order following his obsession with a barmaid. 

Alexander Apthorpe, of The Green, Walberswick, appeared at Ipswich Crown Court accused of breaching a court order banning him from contacting a woman who was working as a barmaid at his local pub.

The court was told he had become "obsessed" with her. 

Apthorpe, also known as George, sent the woman, who is in her 30s and now lives in London, letters and cards addressed to her at her family home near Southwold, Ipswich Crown Court heard. 

In the letters, he said he loved her and looked forward to seeing her soon. 

As long ago as August 2011, he was made the subject of a restraining order banning him from contacting the woman and her family, and this order was updated in August 2021 after he breached the order on several occasions in 2012, 2019, and 2021. 

Apthorpe, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, is set to undergo two psychiatric examinations before he appears for sentencing.