'My ASBO lover is a changed man'

Aug 19 2008 By Emma Heseltine

A Chertsey 'yob' who has spent the last five years on an ASBO is a "changed man" according to his 17-year-old fiancee.

David Underwood, 20, of Oldbury Road, was given a two-year Anti-Social Behaviour Order in 2003 banning him from the town centre and behaving offensively, which was extended in 2005 due to repeated breaches.

It runs out in November, the day before he turns 21.

But his fiancee, Erica Thorne, 17, says he had served his time - including four months in young offenders institutes - and should be allowed to get on with his life.

She said: "Dave was given the ASBO because he drank and would sometimes get into fights, but he's grown up and learned his lesson.

"We can't do anything in Chertsey, because he's not allowed anywhere in the town.

"We can't go out for a meal, and we can't even go to the local shops together. If I go out after dark, I don't feel safe without Dave with me, but he's not allowed to be.

"Dave can't even look for a job because he's not allowed anywhere in Chertsey, and he doesn't drive, so he can't really work any further away.

"I just think he's done his time and should be let off his ASBO early so that he can be free, get a job, and prove PC David Stockle wrong and everyone else that judges him."

David's bad behaviour once filled an 80-page police dossier, but he refused to apologise for his conduct when interviewed by the Herald in September 2005 for a feature on living with an ASBO.

PC Stockle, who has had numerous run-ins with David in the past, said: "He hasn't come to our attention for almost a year, so it certainly looks as though he's keeping himself out of trouble.

"If that's the case, and he really is a changed man, then I wish him the best of luck for the future, and I hope that I don't have to deal with him professionally ever again.

"He could have applied to the courts to have his ASBO shortened, and we would have listened, as we have done in other cases, but he didn't."

When his ASBO runs out, David hopes to find work as a landscape gardener.