Chess Champion In UK Stalks, Blackmails Woman After She Turns Him Down: "I'm Scared"

A 56-year-old married chess master in the UK has been sentenced to 28 months in prison for stalking and harassing a woman in her 20s. According to Metro, Paul Keevil had a history of sexual encounters with the woman, but resorted to blackmail when she started a new relationship and became pregnant. He attempted to publicly shame her as a "sex worker" to ruin her reputation and livelihood.

Notably, he met the university student on Seeking Arrangements in 2018. After a brief relationship, he continued sending her money, and later began threatening her when she declined further contact.

Prosecutor Tom Farr said, "The two of them were in a brief relationship for a few months until she ended the relationship December 2018. From 2019 they remained in contact and from time to time the defendant gave her sums of money, which she sometimes requested – and on one occasion after the end of the relationship they engaged in consensual intimate sexual activity."

When the victim declined Keevil's attempts to rekindle their relationship in 2021, he launched a campaign of defamation against her. He embarked on a five-month campaign of harassment, stalking, and defamation, falsely labeling her a sex worker and sending malicious messages to her family, university, and employer.

In one message Keevil told the victim: ''The best thing you can do right now is say ok and that means sleeping with each other (willingly), it means flirting with each other and it means nice messages and emojis. And yes it means telling a few people we're together. If you do that, any threats will go.''

He even pretended to be the baby's father and contacted the hospital maternity ward. The victim said she was left feeling suicidal and feared for her safety. "His behaviour is so obsessive. He genuinely believes that I am his girlfriend no matter how many times I say ‘No'," she said. 

"He is that obsessive I believe that he will either rape me or kill me and this is making me sick and exhausted. I have a baby and I am scared for his safety. I am also scared that if Paul sees me in public with the child he will snatch my baby to get me to speak to him," she added. 

The woman's partner left her due to Keevil's actions, and she now lives in constant fear.

Keevil was sentenced to 28 months in prison at Bolton Crown Court after pleading guilty to stalking and sexual assault. He'll also sign the Sex Offender Register for 10 years.

Judge Mr Recorder Jeremy Lasker told Keevil, "You subjected the complainant to a sustained course of conduct which was aimed at pressuring her into resurrecting an intimate relationship with you and to demand repayment of monies which you had previously gifted to her.

You consistently refused to take no for an answer – you were effectively blackmailing her. She has found herself almost unable to cope with life and has been driven to consider suicide as the only way out of a set of circumstances which you have imposed upon her by your obsessive and unrelenting behaviour towards her. She has described that her life has become a nightmare from which even now she can see little escape."