BBC DJ Gilles Peterson’s Japanese wife tells of terrifying moment woman yelled ‘Hiroshima b****’ at her 20 times during two month stalking campaign
- Sarah Jayne Rook, 43, is accused of harassing DJ Gilles Peterson and his family
- Mr Peterson, 55, previously said Rook repeatedly was at his north London home
- Rook would hurl abuse at them and call him ‘paedophile’, ‘Hiroshima’ and ‘rapist’
- Mr Peterson’s wife Atsuko said she was called a ‘Hiroshima b****’ over 20 times
- Rook from south-west London, has denied harassing Peterson and his family
The wife of a BBC DJ has told a court she had racist abuse repeatedly ‘screamed’ at her by her husband’s accused stalker at their home.
Sarah Jayne Rook, 43, is accused of subjecting DJ Gilles Peterson and his family to a campaign of harassment in February and March.
Mr Peterson, 55, previously told Stratford Magistrates’ Court in east London Rook repeatedly turned up outside his north London home and hurled abuse.
It included ‘all kinds of stuff from paedophile to Hiroshima and rapist – all very extreme words that were shouted at my house’.
Sarah Jayne Rook (pictured), 43, is accused of subjecting DJ Gilles Peterson and his family to a campaign of harassment in February and March
Mr Peterson, whose real surname is Moehrle, also previously said he found a torn-up picture of himself clipped to the windscreen of his car and he had been scared by a tweet sent to him while on air reading ‘f****** kill him’.
Giving evidence behind screens on Monday, Mr Peterson’s wife Atsuko said she was called a ‘Hiroshima b****’ more than 20 times in one torrent of abuse.
Mrs Moehrle said the first incident began around 10pm on February 15 after a woman knocked on the door asking for Mr Peterson.
She said: ‘I didn’t open the door because I knew there was something very wrong.
‘She started shouting ”you f***** b****, open the door b****”. She just started screaming obscenities.’
Mrs Moehrle said the woman, said to be Rook, ‘didn’t say many sentences, just words’.
She told the court: ‘She repeatedly said ”Hiroshima b****”, she called it more than 20 times.
‘It was racist words. it was targeted towards me. She asked if I was Atsuko, so she was aware of my name too. Obviously that’s my background. I’m Japanese.
‘She was not just shouting, she was screaming, the entire street could hear it.’
The court was shown footage, recorded by the couple’s son Luc, of Rook outside the family home shouting the word ‘c***’ and yelling ‘you dirty rapist c***’ towards them.
Mr Peterson (pictured), 55, previously told Stratford Magistrates’ Court in east London Rook repeatedly turned up outside his north London home and hurled abuse
Mrs Moehrle said Rook knocked on the door of their family home again at around 5pm on March 6, pretending to be a charity worker and asking for her email address.
She said: ‘I recognised her voice straight away. It was quite a traumatic experience.’
Mrs Moehrle added Rook then tried to push her hands through the letterbox and began to scream expletives and ”open the door b****”. I tried to call the police but my hands were shaking.’
Mrs Moehrle said Rook began banging on the window, adding she was scared she might be trapped if the window broke.
The following day, Mrs Moehrle was alerted to a woman sitting on a building site opposite their family home by a neighbour.
She told the court: ‘She was sitting on the building work inside the scaffolding, it was the same person. I didn’t go close to her, I was scared.’
On March 8, Mrs Moehrle said she saw Rook trying to open Mr Peterson’s car outside their north London home before hitting it with a pole ‘three or four times’.
Rook, of Surbiton, south-west London, denies harassing Peterson and his family at their home and studios in north London.
She pleaded not guilty to harassment, stalking, racially aggravated harassment and racially aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress.
The trial continues.