Axe-wielding clown sentenced for stalking ex-partner in Tonbridge

Pawel Rabel, 47, dressed as a clown and struck his ex-partner's door with an axe. He received an 18-month community order and an eight-year restraining order.

Polish man dressed as clown attacks ex-partner's home with axe

Doorbell footage captured a man dressed as a clown arriving at a mother-of-three's home in Tonbridge, growling at the camera before striking her front door with an axe. The Daily Express reports that Pawel Rabel, 47, carried out the attack shortly before 9pm on 20 October, leaving the victim and her children in fear.

Rabel, a Polish national who has lived in the UK for 20 years, was subsequently sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court for repeatedly harassing his ex-partner — the mother of his children — between December 2023 and October 2025.

Prosecutor Alban Brahimi told the court that Rabel arrived at the property dressed as a clown, slammed an axe into the door and acted in a "menacing manner, making growling noises." The victim later found a yellow Aldi bag in her garden containing the clown mask and a card. Police located Rabel in the early hours of 21 October; officers searching his van discovered the axe. Rabel maintained it was plastic and not real.

Brahimi said the campaign of harassment had taken a severe toll on the victim: "The incidents have had a great effect on the victim; it has caused her fear, harassment and distress." The court heard that she suffered a mental breakdown following the attack and has since been diagnosed with depression.

The harassment extended beyond the single night. Rabel, a former bus driver of High Street, Tonbridge, was spotted on multiple occasions near the children's school in a distinctive van and attended his victim's son's jujitsu lesson. He had also previously left parcels and cash outside her home.

The couple had been together from 2014 to 2022 and share two biological children and one step-child. Tensions escalated after Rabel uploaded a recording of a past argument between them to YouTube. Defending barrister Adrian Yalland told the court that Rabel had struggled to accept the end of the relationship and held an "insistence and hope" that it would be rekindled.

Rabel told his barrister: "I hope with all my heart that time will heal matters," and acknowledged he had been "stupid to carry" the axe on the night. He had no previous convictions and, during the court proceedings, stopped working and spent nearly six months in a bail hostel on a qualifying curfew.

Recorder Andrew Walker sentenced Rabel on three of the five counts — possessing an offensive weapon in a public place, stalking without causing fear, alarm and distress, and criminal damage to the front door. He imposed an 18-month community order comprising 90 hours of unpaid work and 15 hours of rehabilitation activity sessions for the stalking and weapons offences, with no separate penalty for the property damage.

Rabel was also ordered to pay £300 compensation to his victim at £25 per month, with no court costs or victim surcharge as the amount has been transferred to compensation. An eight-year restraining order was imposed, barring him from contacting the victim or entering Tunbridge Wells, subject to certain conditions.

Recorder Walker said: "These offences are so serious that nothing less than a community order is justified."

Source: Daily Express