Previous Criminal Convictions and Investigations
In 1980, George failed in his attempt to join the Metropolitan Police. Shortly after, he posed as a policeman, having obtained false warrant cards. For this he was arrested and prosecuted. In May 1980, he appeared in court clad in glam rock clothing and untruthfully stated his name to be Paul Gadd, a revival of his Gary Glitter fixation and the name under which he was charged. At Kingston Magistrates' Court he was convicted and fined £25. George was charged and in June 1981, acquitted of indecent assault against one woman, and convicted of indecent assault against another woman, for which he received a three-month sentence, suspended for two years.
In March 1983 George was convicted at the Old Bailey under the pseudonym of 'Steve Majors' for the February 1982 attempted rape of a woman in Acton, for which he served 18 months of a 33-month sentence. On 10 January 1983, as was revealed after his arrest for the Dando murder, George had been found in the grounds of Kensington Palace, at that time the home of Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales. He had been discovered hiding in the grounds wearing a balaclava and carrying 50 feet of rope, a 12 inch hunting knife, and in possession of a poem he had written to Prince Charles.
On 2 May 1989 at Fulham register office, George married a 35-year-old Japanese student, Itsuko Toide, in what Toide described as a marriage "of convenience – but nonetheless violent and terrifying." After four months she reported to the police that he assaulted her. On 29 October 1989, George was arrested and charged, but the case was dropped and did not go to court; the marriage ended in April 1990. Toide moved back to Japan.
In April 1990, and again in January 1992, George was arrested and charged with indecent assault. Neither case went to court.
Before his trial, George was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome. Prosecution psychologists studying George since his arrest for the Dando murder concluded that he was suffering from several different personality disorders: antisocial, histrionic, narcissistic and possibly paranoid. stating that he has an IQ of 75 and suffers from epilepsy. George has also been likened to a "lone obsessive, Walter Mitty-type figure" for his desire to impersonate famous figures.
Read more about this topic: Barry George
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