An anti-vaccine campaigner jailed for stalking a leading island scientist has been released from prison and claims he is ‘more energised than ever’.

Courtenay Heading was jailed for eight months in March.

He had been convicted in January of stalking Dr Rachel Glover, the scientist who was instrumental in setting up the island’s Covid testing lab.

The court heard he had mounted a ‘smear campaign’ against Dr Glover, blitzing her with hundreds of emails and social media posts containing unfounded allegations relating to her work during the pandemic.

Now released from prison, Mr Heading has vowed to continue his anti-vaccine campaign in his home town of Ramsey.

He took to X, formerly Twitter, to say: ‘To Manx people who tried to silence me - the police, “medics”, politicians, media and “scientists”. Freed on 10/7/24 after four months in Jurby, on false charges, I can confirm I am more energised than ever.

‘True Justice is coming, with over 1,000 maimed and murdered, so far, on-island.’

Dr Glover told the court that the emails from Mr Heading began in late 2017 with claims about the HPV vaccine, but then escalated significantly during the Covid pandemic.

The emails stopped for a couple of weeks after Dr Glover contacted the police who warned Mr Heading that the large volume of unsolicited correspondence was causing her concern.

But then the defendant increasingly turned to Twitter (now X) to post his accusations.

It was one online 'tweet' sent on March 27 last year that brought matters to a head in which he said that ‘Jurby jail was too good for Dr Rachel Glover’. Mr Heading, who represented himself during the proceedings, had denied the charges but was found guilty in the summary court of stalking Dr Glover.

Sentencing him to eight months behind bars, High Bailiff James Brooks told him he had shown a ‘complete lack of remorse’ for his activities.

He also said that the defendant had failed to comply with the court proceedings and had turned the legal process into a ‘quasi-political circus’.

Dr Glover told the court she had increased security at her home and didn’t go into Ramsey to avoid coming face to face with Mr Heading as a result of his actions.

She read out extracts from some of the messages that were either sent directly to her or into which she was copied, a number of which had been sent while she was at home with her new-born baby.

‘It was just an onslaught,’ she said. ‘There was no escape from it.’

As well as serving time behind bars, Heading was also banned from contacting Dr Glover - including copying her into emails - or making any posts on social media mentioning or referring to her.