Paris Hilton's alleged stalker ordered to stand trial

A man accused of allegedly stalking Paris Hilton and disobeying a court order requiring him to stay away from her has been ordered to stand trial.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Jessica Silvers found sufficient evidence to require James Brian Rainford to proceed to trial on two felony counts of stalking and three misdemeanor counts of disobeying a court order.

The 37-year-old is due back in court for arraignment on 29 August.

Rainford was arrested on 4 July by Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies after the police received a call saying a man was standing on the beach and looking into Hilton's home on Pacific Coast Highway, according to the Sheriff's spokesperson Steve Whitmore.

Deputies were directed by paparazzi to Rainford, who was arrested without incident, according to Whitmore.

Rainford had previously attacked Hilton's boyfriend at the time, Cy Waits, on 27 April, as Waits was about to enter a Van Nuys courthouse to testify in the case of Nathan Parada, who was later convicted of an attempted residential burglary at the LA socialite’s home on 24 August last year.

Rainford pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge on 28 April, and was found to be in violation of his probation from a case involving an earlier run-in with one of Hilton’s bodyguards. He was immediately sentenced to 227 days in jail and three years’ probation.

He was released from prison on 20 May, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Inmate Information Centre's website.

Rainford – who was ordered on 13 October last year to stay away from both Hilton and Waits – was being held on $20,000 bail involving the current case. An additional $10,000 bail was set for the two earlier cases, for which he was already on probation.

Advertisement