Serena 'stalker' released from custody

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- A German man accused of stalking Serena Williams in several countries was released from custody Thursday after being arrested outside the entrance to Wimbledon.

Albrecht Stromeyer, 34, appeared in court Thursday on charges of breaching the peace and criminal damage following an altercation with police at the All England Club.

Stromeyer, who lives with his parents in Frankfurt, did not contest the charges when he appeared in Wimbledon Magistrates Court. The court released him but made him post a bond of 300 pounds (US$456).

"Apparently Mr. Stromeyer has a fixation for tennis player Serena Williams," prosecutor Martin Fox told the court. "Information was received by local police to that effect.

"There have been previous incidents where Mr. Stromeyer tried to get close to Miss Williams in both Arizona and Rome.

"The defendant was seen and recognized by officers. Officers tried to prevent the defendant riding down the road (on a bicycle). Eventually he had to be taken off by force."

"He said: 'I don't hate her, I love her, I will never hurt her'," Fox quoted Stromeyer as saying.

Defense lawyer Bruce Cooper said Stromeyer "does accept that his behavior has caused alarm and apprehension."

Magistrate Peter Ullethorne made Stromeyer put up the bond covering a period of 13 months. He will forfeit that amount if he approaches Williams during that time.

Stromeyer left the court through a back entrance and made no comment.

Outside the court, Metropolitan Police Chief Supt. Des Stout said police were aware Stromeyer was in the area around Wimbledon and had asked him not to come to the grounds.

"We were in touch with him beforehand and had asked him to stay away, but he didn't comply," Houghton said.

"Police were taking some security photographs and he tried to grab the camera. At the moment he is in a safe place with his family and we have advised him to get help.

"He is deemed a nuisance rather than a danger, and we don't believe he is violent. His ambition would be at some stage to talk to her."

Italian police, acting on information and photos provided by Interpol, stopped Stromeyer on May 18 at the Foro Italico complex during the Italian Open, Rome police spokesman Antonio Del Greco said Thursday.

Del Greco said Stromeyer had a history of "harassing" Serena Williams, having been stopped at tournaments in the United States and Germany.

He said authorities briefly detained Stromeyer at a Rome police station. Stromeyer was neither formally arrested nor was he charged with stalking, but was served with an expulsion order and then released, Del Greco said.

Williams' mother, Oracene, told the Washington Post on Wednesday that when Stromeyer was detained in Rome, "he said Serena looked at him when he was in the crowd, and that's how he knew she loved him.

"Of course, Serena never looked at anyone."

Stromeyer has also been spotted at a tournament in Berlin and the French Open last month.

Oracene Williams said a man came up to them in Berlin in May "and he shook my hand and asked if Serena was with me, and I said no."

"Then he found out what hotel we were at in Paris, even though we had checked in under fake names," she told the Post. "That scared me. We didn't tell Serena until later."

A full-time bodyguard is accompanying Serena and her sister, Venus, at Wimbledon.

Both Williams sisters were scheduled to play semifinal matches Thursday. They were also due to play together in women's doubles.

In February, Stromeyer walked into a hotel in Scottsdale, Ariz., where Williams was staying during a tournament and asked to see her, the Post reported. When the desk clerk denied his request, he began taking off his clothes and was taken away by police, the paper said.

In April, a man who followed Swiss tennis player Martina Hingis was sentenced to two years in prison for stalking and trespassing. Dubravko Rajcevic, a 46-year-old Croatian-born naval architect and Australian citizen, was arrested when he ignored an order from police to stay away from Hingis during a tournament at Key Biscayne, Florida.

Security for women's players has been a priority since Monica Seles was stabbed by a German man during a tournament in Hamburg in 1993.

 

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