Comedian Rory McGrath admits stalking married woman for 14 months

Updated

Comedian Rory McGrath has admitted stalking a married woman for 14 months.

The TV star had denied the single charge at an earlier hearing but changed his plea to guilty on the first day of his trial at Huntingdon Magistrates' Court in Cambridgeshire on Thursday.

Prosecutors said McGrath, who has appeared in programmes such as BBC panel show They Think It's All Over and comedy documentary Three Men In A Boat, sent the woman electronic messages, approached her in the street and followed her.

The court heard that the 60-year-old, of Grantchester Street, Cambridge, also sent letters to the woman's husband, and that the offending happened between June 2015 and August 2016.

His alleged victim cannot be named for legal reasons.

In 2013, McGrath was cautioned by police over a drunken assault against a couple.

He was said to have attacked the man and a woman, who were trying to help him while he was "heavily in drink", police said at the time of the incident.

The man suffered a bloody nose and a scratched face, and McGrath was subsequently arrested over the assaults, which took place at a house in Pool, near Redruth in Cornwall, where McGrath grew up.

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