Schizophrenic man, who defence lawyer called 'a bit odd', is cleared of stalking model and 'face of Royal Ascot' Lady Martha Sitwell

Daily Mail​

15-05-2025

A schizophrenic man has been cleared of stalking an aristocrat and model dubbed the 'face of Royal Ascot '.
Mirsad Veliji was accused of mounting a campaign of harassment against Lady Martha Sitwell, 45, between April and August 2022.
It was alleged he stood in front of her Kensington flat in July 2022 and 'made a strangling noise before watching Ms Sitwell'.
On another occasion it was said Veliji 'cycled very close to Ms Sitwell and laughed out loud.'
But a jury at Isleworth Crown Court took just over an hour to clear him of two charges of stalking.
Earlier Veliji's defence lawyer, Atalanta Sanders, suggested he was 'actually just a man, who may be a bit odd and - as Lady Sitwell agreed - didn't fit in with the South Kensington area.
'What I invite you to do', she added later, 'is to take care not to criminalise behaviour that is odd, that may have been taken out of turn but is actually a man going about his day-to-day business.
'The defence say that you cannot be sure that the events set out by Ms Sitwell haven't been misinterpreted and that they weren't intentionally pursued by Mr Veliji in a manner that amounts to stalking.'
She referred jurors to Veliji's schizophrenia diagnosis for which he 'takes injections.'
Ms Sanders told how Lady Sitwell 'agreed that South Kensington is a fairly affluent area and that she didn't think she would see him again when she just started really noticing him.
'So, please, ask yourself: isn't is possible that not expecting to see this person who didn't fit in - unaware as we know now that he lived only a few doors down - that seeing him more frequently may have caused this misinterpretation?'
She added: 'It is, as the defence suggest, entirely possible this is just a man who behaves slightly strangely, who has mental health problems and may not look like you or me, who Lady Sitwell didn't know lives just down the road.
'I ask you not to criminalise behaviour that otherwise wouldn't be criminal..'
Velij from Kensington, was found not guilty of two counts of stalking. The first alleged he caused fear of violence while the second alleged he caused 'alarm or distress'.
The defendant, who had been held in custody, appeared relieved as he was acquitted.
Jurors previously heard he was earlier convicted of assaulting a woman jogging alone in Chelsea in January 2022.
He attacked a second woman in Kensington in May 2022 after he grabbed by the neck, dragged her and tried to punch her near her home.
With his long grey hair in a ponytail he appeared in court today accompanied by a mental health intermediary.
Questioned by his defence barrister Atalanta Sanders he said Lady Sitwell's fear of him was 'not his fault'.
Asked if he remembered staring at her in April 2022, Veliji replied: 'No'.
Ms Sanders asked: 'In that time period do you remember wanting to make anyone uncomfortable, that was a lady, near where you live?'
'No, no', Veliji repeated.
He claimed he bumped into Lady Sitwell on the street in April 2022 and this was the 'first and last' time he met the socialite.
Veliji said she 'put her hand up' adding: 'She was scared and I was scared - she went on her way, I continued on my way', he said.
'Do you remember trying to speak to her near her house in May?', Ms Sanders asked.
'No, no, no - I never tried to speak to her', he replied.
Asked if he'd ever 'cycled at a lady on purpose', Veliji again responded: 'No'.
John Livingston, prosecuting, asked Veliji: 'Is it your case that everything that she said is a lie?'
'It is a lie, sir, everything what she said is made up apart from when we met', the man said.
The prosecutor said Veliji had been convicted following two incidents involving women in 2022.
'Both incidents happened in the area where you lived. The first one involves a women who was jogging alone on Cromwell Road and what I say is that she bumped into you accidentally on the way and then looked back to apologise.
'And then you started to stare at her, you walked back to her and you grabbed her neck for approximately five seconds.
'She was able to break away from you but she had red marks around her neck.'
Veliji told jurors: 'It is true, I pleaded guilty.'
'You (also) grabbed a woman who lived in [X] just like Martha Sitwell - you grabbed her by the neck.'
Veliji replied: 'They hit me with the arm, both of them, that's why I reacted.
'This is a question of you grabbing (the second woman) by the neck, dragging her head along the railings near her home and intending to punch her - and you pleaded guilty to doing all that.
'The prosecution case is that Martha Sitwell was afraid that you were going to do something very similar to her, do you understand?'
'I could have done it if she had hit me with the arm but with Martha nothing happened like that.'
Veliji repeated that he was 'sorry for making Martha scared' but said that being scared 'could happen to anybody, even to me.'
Lady Sitwell, ex-wife of baronet Sir George Sitwell and daughter of late gastronome Justin de Blank, Lady Sitwell is dubbed the 'Face of Ascot'.
She married former film producer Sir George in 2007 and lived with him at Grade II-listed Weston Hall in Northamptonshire. They divorced in 2017.