A WOMAN who mounted a campaign of harassment against a group of Quakers has been handed a restraining order and told to pay nearly £1,000.

Julia Wermig-Morgan, 70 and whose address was given as High Street, Burton Bradstock, was previously found guilty of two charges of harassment without violence after an unseemly row that shocked a local Quaker society.

Werming-Morgan spent more than a year targeting members of the Bridport Quakers’ meeting group with ‘unsavoury’ letters and emails.

She appeared before Weymouth Magistrates’ Court on Friday, January 20 for sentencing where she was was ordered not to have any contact, direct or indirect, with any member of the Bridport Quakers and given a 12 month restraining order in respect of four named individuals. 

At a trial in November, the court heard the psychotherapist had sent Caroline Kibblewhite, a retired probation officer and assistant clerk of the society, and Valerie Shepherd, one of the elders, letters, emails and postcards.

She accused members of the group of being 'old ladies spreading malicious gossip' and claimed one was an 'alcoholic in denial'.

Despite twice being asked to stop sending the 'distressing' mail by the police, Wermig-Morgan carried on with her campaign of harassment.

Mrs Kibblewhite, the safeguarding representative for the Bridport Quaker group, said the behaviour was 'unacceptable' and had left people in the group 'devastated' and 'quite traumatised'.

She said: "I decided that it wasn't helpful to get into game playing. I deleted them and put them in my spam email and some were forwarded to the elders.

"I was convinced that we were not going to be able to easily get her to realise that her behaviour was unacceptable and she needed to refrain but it was one thing after another after another.”

Wermig-Morgan accepted sending the correspondence but claimed that she was simply going through the correct channels to report her concerns involving vulnerable Quaker elderly people and children.

 "It was the process to contact them with concerns, I didn't think they should hold a job if they didn't want to answer questions that were part of that role," she said.

In sentencing, Chairman of the Bench, Richard MacRae issued a community order in which Werming-Morgan must complete a maximum of 10 rehabilitation requirement days as well as pay a £253 fine, £620 in costs and £95 to fund victim services.