Harry Styles’ stalker, 27, back in court after ‘flouting restraining order’ banning contact with One Direction star
HARRY Styles’ stalker has been back before court accused of flouting a restraining order which banned contact with the One Direction member.
Pablo Tarazaga-Orero, 27, staked out Harry’s house, ambushed him when he went jogging, pushed notes and money through his letterbox and followed him to the pub.
Tarazaga-Orero was banned from going 270 yards of Styles when a judge imposed the restraining order in October 2019.
But, he allegedly made contact with the singer over social media on December 22 – something banned under the terms of the order, Mail Online reports.
Tarazaga-Orero appeared in the dock on Boxing Day and is due to return to court for a pre-trial hearing later this month.
The 27-year-old has been accused of contacting Styles again from a property in Regent Street and gave his address as a housing block in Finchley during the appearance.
He was granted bail under a 9pm-6am curfew and had been ordered to return to Highbury Corner magistrates court on January 18, after entering a not-guilty plea to a charge of breaking a restraining order.
The Watermelon Sugar singer previously said: “I saw him incredibly often. Almost every day. I could feel him watching me. It made me feel incredibly uncomfortable.
“Up until that point I had never felt unsafe or uneasy at my own house. I’d never encountered this kind of behaviour before.”
Harry, who upgraded security at the North London house and had a “panic lock” fitted on his bedroom door, said feelings of dread and anxiety remained even after Tarazaga-Orero was arrested.
He added: “I have had to employ a night guard. I continue to lock my bedroom during the night.
“I find myself assessing my residence and weak spots in it. I worry about it. If I see people on multiple occasions I view them differently than I would before.”
He said of Tarazaga-Orero: “I’d like him to get some help but I would prefer not to have any contact with him going forward. I would like to feel safe at home.”
Harry, who topped the charts with Sign of the Times, told how his ordeal began with an act of kindness — when he spotted Tarazaga-Orero sleeping at a bus stop on a rainy and bitterly cold night and offered him money for a hotel.
He was forced to deny Tarazaga-Orero’s allegation that he offered the cash so they could go to a hotel and “have some fun”.
Harry said: “Pablo was sleeping outside my residence for an extended period of time. I would notice him walking up and down the road.
“Returning home one evening, I noticed him sleeping at the bus stop outside my residence.
“I thought it was sad someone so young was sleeping rough — that anyone was when it was so cold. I felt sorry for him.”
The One Direction singer said he first spoke to Tarazaga-Orero after driving past the bus stop in the pouring rain at 2am.
He said: “I pulled up in my car and offered him some money so he could get a hotel or some food. He told me that he couldn’t accept the money for religious reasons. He said he was vegan.”
The singer said he saw a patrolling police car and told the officers there was a young man sleeping at the bus stop and they might want to speak to him.
The next morning he went to a vegan cafe to buy food and when he saw Tarazaga-Orero he passed him a bag of wraps and muffins.
Harry said: “He asked me if I wanted to go to a restaurant and eat with him. I told him I was on my way to work so I couldn’t. I found it a little odd.
“His facial expression made me feel a little uneasy, it was a kind of smirk. I realised there was something not quite normal.”
In the following days it became clear Tarazaga-Orero was stalking Harry. He said: “I saw him on several occasions in my local pub, maybe four times in a week.
I felt watched, it made me feel incredibly uncomfortable.”
Harry Styles
“He’d enter the pub anywhere between a minute and two minutes after I arrived. I felt watched, it made me feel incredibly uncomfortable. At this point I started to feel he was maybe following me around.
“He’d sit in my eyeline. He’d just watch and look over and wait for me to leave. He was always alone.”
The singer was at his home with a friend when Tarazaga-Orero posted almost £50 in cash through the door.
“It made me confused and very, very uncomfortable, I didn’t really understand it.
“I began to question why if Pablo was homeless he’d be sending money through my letterbox?” A few weeks later two notes containing Tarazaga-Orero’s bank details arrived begging for money.
One read: “Harry I have put my bank account here, hopefully you can help me. Send me the money you offered me that night.”
The second said: “I will take the money you offered me. It’s my only option. Please give it to me.”
“It was the first time since living in my residence I felt unsafe at home,” Harry admitted.
‘SCARED’
“It was the first time I used the panic lock on my bedroom door that night.”
The next day Tarazaga-Orero tried to stop Harry when the singer went for a run and kept repeating: “I need the money.”
Harry said: “I was very scared at this point.”
The Spaniard said he had “a vision” that he and Harry would be together in Ireland. Tarazaga-Orero told the court Harry had “tried to buy him” when they spoke at the bus stop.
He said: “I was asleep and it was raining. Someone stopped with their car. He said ‘Hey, hey, hey!’
“He started asking me questions. He took out a bunch of notes, a ball of notes. He said, ‘Let’s go to a hotel, let’s have some fun.”
“I understood he was trying to buy me with the money. I was scared. I didn’t want to go with him. I didn’t stalk him. I am not in love with him.”
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District judge Nigel Dean rubbished Tarazaga-Orero’s account at Hendon magistrates court.
He said: “I find Mr Styles to be a reliable and credible witness. The defendant is neither a credible witness nor a reliable one.
“Mr Styles felt sorry for a young man he saw to be living without a home in winter.
“I find the suggestion that Mr Styles suggested he would accompany the defendant to a hotel for fun to be completely incredible. He was trying to help another for whom he felt sorry.”