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A woman tasered an autistic man as he made his way to the library - because she thought he was staring at her breasts.

Hollie Baker ran off laughing after she zapped acquaintance Lee Pearson with the illegal stun gun, leaving him writhing on the ground in agony.

Lee, 42, was stopped in the street by Baker, 29, who came up from behind him and blasted him in the back with the shock weapon.

Lee had known Baker for about a year as they lived in the same area of Maidstone, Kent.

He told Maidstone Crown Court that one of the ways his Asperger's syndrome presents itself is that Lee unconsciously stands uncomfortably close to people he's chatting with, and fixes them with his gaze.

He said: "I wasn't standing close to her. I was talking to her about my Asperger's syndrome.

"The next thing I knew she tasered me on the back. I was terrified.

"I ran down the road and called the police."

The incident happened last May, and shocked Lee told Maidstone Crown Court on Wednesday that he thought he had been stabbed.

Baker, of Maidstone, was jailed for 16 months after admitting assault by beating and possession an electrical incapacitating device.

She claimed she got the illegal Taser for protection, and would take it with her when she walked her dog late at night.

She said: "I wanted him to step back and not be so close. I asked him to move back many times.

"He was looking at my breasts quite a lot. I jabbed him in the side and said: 'Get away from me.'

"I ran home in tears to my partner. It was 'Oh my god, what have I done?'"

Questioned by prosecutor John Fitzgerald, Baker denied knowing the victim had difficulties and that one of the symptoms was that he would get too close to people at times.

Mr Fitzgerald suggested that Baker left her flat to "have a go at him".

He said: "You had a new toy. You knew he was vulnerable.

"You were fed up with him invading your personal space and you jabbed him in the back."

Lee Pearson told police he counted Hollie Baker as one of his friends, and thought he got on well with her.

In a recorded interview he said he believed he got on well with a group of people that included Baker and her boyfriend.

Ian Foinette, defending, said Baker was bipolar and suffered from schizophrenia.

She took prescribed drugs to help her to sleep.

Mr Foinette, defending, asked him when giving evidence in court: "Were you looking at her breasts?"

Lee, who has Asperger's syndrome, replied: "No, I was looking at her hair.

"I didn't look at her in a sexual way."