A homeless man has been found guilty of stalking Harry Styles and leaving him scared in his home after a three-month ordeal, Metro reports.
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The One Direction singer told the court that he discovered 26-year-old homeless man Pablo Tarazaga-Orero in a bus shelter near his home.
“Pablo was sleeping outside my residence for an extended period of time. I would notice him walking up and down the road,” he began.
“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.”
He offered the man money but when he refused it, citing “religious reasons”, he went to buy him food instead.
“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.”
“I asked him if he needed any food, he asked for some edamame beans. I stopped at a vegan cafe, I bought two sandwiches, two salads, two muffins all heated then took them to Pablo.”
Upon handing the food to Pablo, things took a sinister turn.
“I passed him the bag of food through the car window at which point he asked me if I wanted to go to a restaurant to eat with him. I told him I was on my way to work. I found it a little odd,” he recalls.
“His facial expression made me feel a little uneasy. It was like a smirk.”
He added: “Until that point, I never felt unsafe or uneasy in my own home.”
Styles at the 2019 Met Gala
The Spanish-national had camped at the bus stop outside Harry’s home because “he knows that Mr Styles lived close by.”
At that point, the singer started seeing Pablo around daily.
“I saw him incredibly often. Almost every day. I could feel him watching me. It made me feel incredibly uncomfortable,” he said.
Pablo posted notes and money through his letterbox and followed him on his jogs and visits to the local pub, The Spaniard’s Inn.
“He would sit in my eye line,” Harry recalled. “He tried to speak to me on the second occasion as I was leaving. He would just kind of watch and look over and wait for me to leave. I was very confused, very very uncomfortable, very confused, I didn’t really understand it.”
The matter escalated in May when the homeless man lunged at the star and tried to grab him while he was jogging through Regent’s Park.
He went to the police in June after the defendant’s frightening behaviour left him scared in his own house and even hired a security guard and had a “panic lock” installed on his bedroom door.
“I never really encountered this kind of behaviour before,” he added. “I’ve employed a night guard. I continue to lock my bedroom door at 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.”
Pablo believed that he was “the soulmate of Harry Styles” and was “spiritually protecting him.”
He claimed that the star offered him money to have “some fun” in a hotel on their first meeting, but Harry vehemently denies this and maintains that he only offered the man money for food.
District Judge Nigel Dean said: “It would be fair for me to say at this stage that I found Mr Styles to be a reliable and credible witness.”
He praised Harry for his generosity towards the homeless man and for his assistance with the case.
“Mr Styles felt sorry for a young man who he saw to be living without a home during the winter when it was cold and raining very heavily and having first noticed him he then out of goodness of his heart stopped and offered to fund the defendant’s hotel accommodation that evening,” said the judge.
“These were honest, well intended, good intentions from somebody who was trying to help another for whom he felt sorry and who he thought was down on his luck.”
He concluded by condemning the homeless man’s actions.
“He knew perfectly well that what he was doing at that stage amounted to harassment of Mr Styles. I’m quite satisfied that this behaviour had the effect of harassing Mr Styles.”
