A man who stalked Emily Maitlis for 27 years has jailed for three years after breaching his restraining order for the 12th time. 

Edward Vines, 49, sent two letters to the BBC Newsnight presenter’s mother  saying he was in love with Maitlis and was “distressed” when she ceased contact with him.

Vines said he had been “troubled” by Maitlis’s treatment of him while at Cambridge University in the mid-1990s – adding that she lied about him during a previous trial.

At Nottingham Crown Court on Monday, a judge said he feared there was “no sight of this ever ending” – describing the defendant’s behaviour as a “life-long obsession”.

During sentencing, judge Stuart Rafferty said he had to sentence Vines “on the basis you are a long way from any reality dawning on you”. 

“If you love Emily Maitlis as you say you do, one might be forgiven for saying you have a very strange way of showing it, because you have made her life, in many ways, a misery,” Rafferty said. 

Concluding his sentencing remarks, the judge added: “She can’t live a free life because of you. She is forever looking over her shoulder to see if you are there.

“If you keep breaching the order, all the court can do is lock you up.

“This at the moment has to be treated as a life-long obsession by you. All the court can do is try to protect Ms Maitlis and her family as best as it can.

“Until you can take the step to stop being the unrequited 19-year-old that you were at the start of all of this, nothing will ever change.”