Crazed Stalker Almost Broke Meby Michael Sheather (Woman's Day, 3 May 1999) It was just a plain white envelope. But when Ian Roberts — one
of the world's
Ian ripped open the letter and found a highly suggestive photograph from a male fan he'd never met. Finally, Ian thought, the fine line between being admired and being stalked had been crossed. "I couldn't believe this was happening to me. I'm not exaggerating when I say that all I kept thinking about was the movie Fatal Attraction - even though I'd never met this person", says Ian, 33. Ian's fear came as a shock even to him, a footy giant who three years ago announced to the world his deepest secret — that he was a gay man in the macho world of rugby league. "For as long as I could remember I had been running and hiding, feeling I would be persecuted if I revealed the truth about myself and my situation. "But standing there holding that photograph in my hands was one of the most disturbing. frightening moments of my life, and I knew I had to do something about it." That something began with a complaint to the police and ended a few weeks ago at Cairns District Court. Ian had been subjected to hundreds of bizarre, explicit letters and photos and even death threats. David Innes Braybrooke, 26, of Malanda, about 250 kilometres northeast of Townsville in northern Queensland, pleaded guilty on March 20 to stalking Ian and to sending him obscene and offensive material. Braybrooke, described as a paranoid schizophrenic; was sentenced to three years probation and ordered not to approach or communicate with Ian. The nightmare began in December 1996, when Ian, a new recruit with North Queensland Cowboys rugby league team in Townsville, received a fan letter from Braybrooke — one of many thousands he receives annually. "I usually try to answer all my mail," says Ian, who now runs his own sports marketing company. "But then a few more letters started to arrive from the same person. When that happens I try to discourage them so I don't usually reply." But Ian's initial reply triggered some kind of deep-seated obsession. In court it was called a "classic case of unrequited love". But as the trickle of letters turned into a flood — up to 10 a day — the situation took on a darker, far more sinister aspect. "Sometimes if you don't respond then people like this just lose interest. I was hoping that would be the case," Ian explains. It wasn't, Each new missive brought protestations of love that eventually transformed into wild fantasies. "The letters were very graphic and very scary," says Ian, who lives with his partner of three years, Andrew, in a waterside apartment in Townsville. In one, Braybrooke wrote, "I'm a hopeless romantic and passionate about you. I named my pillow Ian it stops me feeling lonely at night." With the letters arrived odd gifts such as staplers, ornaments, expensive coffee table books and hundreds of dollars in cash. "All of this money started to arrive and I just sent it back without a letter or anything," recalls Ian. "It was too strange for words. But it kept coming and I had one of the girls at the club write a letter saying that if he continued then I would just donate it to a local charity." Ian was no longer reading the letters. They were held in a file at the Cowboys' offices. "Somehow he must have realised that I wasn't reading the letters, because he started writing on the outside of the envelopes and it was pretty graphic stuff, too," Ian adds. "I've had a lot of fan letters before — and sometimes they've offered more than friendship — but it was never anything I would even consider. This was weird, obsessive stuff and it really started to mess with my head." As well as the photograph there were even more ominous signs of obsession. In one message. Braybrooke told Ian that he had watched him. "What if I told you I'd been spying on you with a telescope and I've got photos of you? They'd make a great perv on the Internet," he wrote. The pictures of Ian didn't exist, but the claims were disconcerting. "He mentioned he'd seen me. That really threw me because I had no idea where he would have been," says Ian. "For all I knew he might have been in crowd at a game or he might have been watching me in the street, or anywhere for that matter. "It meant that every time I went out in public I had this sensation that I was being watched. It was with me all the time arid no matter what I told myself I couldn't shake that feeling.
Finally there were the death threats. They were blunt and frightening, such as, "Your time is up. You might want to watch your back. I hate you." Another read, "I'm going to get you, Roberts," with a drawing of the crosshairs of a telescopic rifle sight and the words, 'Bang, bang, bang'. "Quite deliberately, I didn't tell Andrew about the threats," admits Ian. "I didn't need the extra worry of knowing he was upset. For the same reason I didn't tell my mum and dad, who still live in Sydney. I wanted to protect them as much as possible."
But the stress was almost unbearable. In some ways I really feel sorry for this guy. He obviously needs help for a condition he has no control over, but for me it was a nightmare. Now, though, Ian can relax. "You have no idea how stressful or horrific something like this
can be until you live though it," he explains. "I just want
to put the whole thing behind me and get on with the rest of my life." |
