Cricketer Grant Hodnett jailed by courts after stalking another woman

South African Grant Hodnett, born in Johannesburg and a former batsman for Gloucestershire and Grappenhall cricket clubs, left his victim feeling violated and caused her to install security measures costing thousands of pounds.

The 41-year-old, of Rixton, was previously spared jail in September 2020 for stalking another woman and handed a restraining order – which he also breached during this latest offending.

He was locked up at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday, Thursday, after admitting charges of stalking involving serious alarm or distress and breach of a restraining order.

The court heard from prosecutor Frank Dillon how the latest ‘campaign of stalking’ lasted just over a month over October and November last year.

Hodnett entered a relationship with the victim last June, and despite her soon finding out about his previous conviction, she gave him the ‘benefit of the doubt’ and was waiting for him to tell her.

By September, his behaviour ‘gave her cause for concern’, as while she was in London with friends, he sent her messages ‘surprising her how needy he was’.

He also sent messages to the friends she was with, on a fake Instagram profile under the name Aaron, asking about her.

The victim met up with Hodnett that month with the intention of ending the relationship but did not go through with it, however, she discovered days later that he had accessed her iPad without her permission.

She confronted him and he left, but he later changed his profile photo to a noose and sent an apparent ‘suicide letter’, leading her to call the police.

He was released without charge, but in the weeks that followed the complainant began to receive emails and phone calls from organisations such as Drink Aware and therapists, claiming that she had signed up voluntarily through self-referral forms.

In one such form for a counselling website, completed by Hodnett purporting to be the victim, he said she was a ‘habitual liar who used sex and substance abuse as a coping mechanism’.

These left her feeling ‘violated, scared, distressed and on edge’, and on one occasion she ‘burst out crying’. The court heard she installed CCTV at her home costing thousands of pounds.

Grant Hodnett was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court

Hodnett contacted her friends and said that the victim had been saying ‘unpleasant things about him’ and had ‘treated him badly, leaving him ruined’, causing her to suffer a panic attack when she found out which ‘petrified’ her

When he made a no-speech call to her from a withheld number, which was traced back to him, she called the police, leading to him being interviewed where he denied his behaviour, and in a second interview he answered no comment.

In an impact statement, she said that she cannot sleep due to waking up from nightmares about Hodnett and is ‘anxious and powerless, like he is chipping away’ at her.

She said she does not feel safe in her own home and is now ‘hyper vigilant’, which is exhausting, and she has low self-esteem and does not trust her judgement.

The court heard how his actions have negatively impacted her work and changed her day-to-day life.

She added: “I feel shame and embarrassment that I could ever let anyone who could behave in this despicable way into my life.”

The behaviour was strikingly similar to his previous stalking conviction, the court heard, which came after he signed the victim up for adverts and caused her phone to receive calls from foreign numbers.

He also sent an email to the complainant’s father containing erotic photos of his daughter adult modelling, informed her employer about her adult modelling and sent messages to the complainant’s friends to ‘cause a rift’, calling her a ‘liar and a psychopath’.

The sentence for that conduct was also included an indefinite restraining order prohibiting him from contacting her, but also from entering a stretch of London Road in Stockton Heath.

This was breached by Hodnett on November 1 last year, when at around 10.15am, the original victim saw him on London Road while driving.

She pulled over and took a photo of him, which he saw, and he later informed the police he had breached his order, claiming he thought it had expired – a defence he no longer relies upon.

In her impact statement, the victim said she was finally starting to feel safe again due to the restraining order, but the incident caused her to ‘physically shake’ and brought old feelings of fear back, impacting her health.

“I was finally beginning to feel normal again and safe in the area. The peace I was finally able to feel and enjoy was completely shattered when I saw Hodnett,” she said.

Grant Hodnett was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court

“My sense of safety has been torn apart by him breaching his restraining order made to protect me.”

The court heard that as well as his previous conviction, also for stalking involving serious alarm or distress, he received a caution for harassment in 2015.

Mitigating on behalf of his client, Max Saffman said: “The public gallery is almost full with friends and family, giving the court a feel of how well thought of he is by those who know him best.”

He highlighted positive references, the defendant’s mental health struggles and how prison on remand over Christmas and New Year has ‘not been a pleasant experience for him’.

He was due to be sentenced last week, however the prison van he was in crashed, leaving him with injuries to his head and eye.

Mr Saffman urged the court to suspend any sentence to allow Hodnett to receive help from the Probation Service for the ‘crux’ of his issues, adding that his ‘intelligent’ client who has ‘brought pleasure and enjoyment to lots of people’ as a cricketer and latterly as a personal trainer.

However, this plea was rejected by judge Denis Watson, who said that the defendant’s behaviour was ‘emotionally manipulative’.

“If ever there was a warning shot to your behaviour, you had it as she contacted the police, and although the police spoke to you, you were released without charge,” he commented.

“I have no doubt at all having been warned about your conduct, it seems you were undeterred. It echoes the behaviour that let to your previous stalking conviction.”

He concluded: “It is noted that you pose a significant and serious risk of harm to future partners.

“I regret to say that the factors which Mr Saffman has sought to deploy are outweighed by those on the other side of the page.”

Hodnett, formerly of Stockton Heath, but now of Birch Road in Rixton, was sentenced to 18 months immediate imprisonment.

He was also made the subject of new indefinite restraining orders preventing him from contacting or approaching the victims, publishing, displaying or distributing anything referencing them, and from entering named areas of Warrington and Northwich.