"Ghostbusted" - man fined for terrifying mourners in cemetery by making woooooh noises
Man, 24, arrested for making spooky noises and "throwing himself backwards" while visitors paid their respects
Frightening: Anthony Stallard, 24, outside court after being fined for scaring mourners
A man who pretended to be a ghost by shouting "wooooo" at mourners in a cemetery has been fined.
Anthony Stallard had been kicking a football around in graveyard with a friend, while also making 'ghostly' noises close to be people visiting the graves of their loved ones.
Police arrested and charged the 24-year-old with using threatening or abusive words or behaviour likely to cause distress.
Tim Concannon, prosecuting, said: "While the football was going on this defendant was effectively singing loudly and being disrespectful in among the graves.
"He was throwing himself backwards, waving his arms about and going 'woooooooh'.
"I'm assuming he was pretending to be a ghost."
Fightening: Anthony Stallard, 24, was fined for impersonating a ghost in a Portsmouth graveyard
At an earlier hearing, he admitted his behaviour could cause distress to grieving relatives.
Defending, Denise Saunders said: "He has accepted that his behaviour, if it had been outside of a cemetery, would not have been inappropriate.
"But inside a cemetery, while people are grieving for their loved ones, it might be."
Stallard committed the offence while subject to a 12-month conditional discharge, which he had received for a charge of harassment in January.
He was also in breach of a suspended sentence for an offence of assault, which he had committed in August last year.
Stallard, of Portsmouth, Hants, was fined £35 and made to pay a £20 victim surcharge and £20 in court costs.
An extra three months was added to his suspended sentence, which will now run for 15 months instead of the previous 12.
If he commits a further offence that breaches this suspended sentence, he will face 12 weeks imprisonment.
Charges of causing damage to gravestones as the pair played football were dismissed when witnesses failed to show at court.
