A spurned city banker bought a cache of weapons including crossbows and a gun and set fire to a holiday home after being dumped, a court heard.
Al Amin Dhalla, a Canadian national, is accused of a terrifying four-month campaign against trainee doctor Alison Hewitt, 35, from Brighton and her family after she dumped him in December 2010.
Prosecutor Richard Barton told Lewes Crown Court that in April, 2011, Dhalla bought an air rifle with a telescopic sight, a pistol and two crossbows, and headed for Miss Hewitt’s parents’ holiday home on Lundy Island in a specially adapted van.
En route, he stopped to do target practice in a field in Wiltshire but was seen and arrested before he could get to Miss Hewitt’s mother, Pamela, and her partner David Gray, on the tiny island off the Devon coast, the court heard.
He was bailed and the following day, April 5, hired a car, bought petrol and set fire to the couple’s thatched cottage in Buckinghamshire, the court heard.
The fire did not take hold and nobody was hurt.
Mrs Hewitt and Mr Gray were airlifted off Lundy Island by police and taken to a secret address for their own safety.
Later that day Dhalla was seen at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, where Miss Hewitt was working.
Prosecutor Mr Barton said: “He was masquerading as a doctor and seeking details of the trainee doctors’ rota, to include times when Alison was on duty. That evening he hired a third car and drove back up to Buckinghamshire. The house was surrounded by police and he was not able to gain access.
“Instead, he drove to the local police station and tried to set it alight with further accelerants and papers.”
The next morning he was spotted back at the Princess Royal, again posing as a doctor and was arrested by armed police.
Mr Barton said: “In his hire car were found a loaded crossbow, a large knife, fuel cans with remnants of their contents, his fake doctor’s outfit including a second stolen stethoscope and a fuel-soaked envelope addressed to Pamela Hewitt.
“It is the Crown’s case that the defendant, having been rejected by Alison Hewitt, started a campaign of harassment and petty offences against her and her family.”
Dhalla, who came to the UK in 2009 and worked as a bank auditor in London, denies ten charges, including aggravated harassment, arson being reckless as to endangering life, and possession of an offensive weapon.
The trial continues.
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