A FORMER health worker who led a 16 month campaign of stalking and sending love letters to a local emergency service worker has been urged to be assessed by a psychologist before returning to court next month.

The 53-year-old Wangaratta woman will return to the Wangaratta Magistrates Court for sentence next month, after last week pleading guilty to a single stalking charge almost four years since the offending commenced.

Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Stuart Pritchard said the victim had first reported stalking behaviours to Wangaratta police in May 2020, after letters addressed to him containing personal information were left on the windscreen of his private vehicle while working in the Wangaratta area.

LSC Pritchard said police launched a 12-month investigation to identify the culprit, whose letters were left anonymously on the man’s vehicle or mailed to his home address between June 2020 and August 2021.

The letters were often written in the second or third person, using broad terms such as "ask her out" and "don't let go of one so sweet".

LSC Pritchard said the victim was concerned the letters were being sent by a co-worker, and the man subsequently became anxious around his female colleagues.

A card delivered to his home address prior to Christmas in 2020 was signed with a shortened version of the accused’s name, and a fingerprint was found through forensic analysis.

Police subsequently began to monitor the accused, and when the victim received text messages on his personal mobile from Telstra phone boxes in Wangaratta, Wodonga and Seymour on five separate occasions over an 11-month period, the accused’s mobile phone was found to have pinged off nearby phone towers on each occasion.

Police revealed the name of their prime suspect to the victim, who told officers he had only met the woman in passing at a local fast food restaurant while he was in uniform.

LSC Pritchard said the accused’s role as a health worker may have allowed her to access the personal details of her victim at Northeast Health Wangaratta.

Police searched the woman’s Wangaratta address in December 2021, locating a laptop with files bearing the victim’s name, and handwritten letters addressed to the victim.

She was charged and bailed, however, a co-accused later continued her offending, sending texts to the victim from phone booths at Barnawartha and Glenrowan on two separate occasions in 2022.

LSC Pritchard said the second woman likely offended of her own volition to help the accused, with whom she had a previous working relationship.

Defence lawyer Stephanie Caruso sought an adjournment to gather plea material, which she said would include a reference from her client’s workplace, character references and psychological material.

Magistrate Allison Vaughan voiced her support for a psychological report to be filed, noting the woman’s mental wellbeing was at the “crux” of the offending.