This morning saw the hearing of an American woman accused of sending death threats to British scientist Stephen Hawking in Tenerife, Canary Islands.

Police sources say that the woman is mentally unstable and has been harassing Dr. Hawking for several years.

However, concern increased when it became known that the woman had travelled from the States to the Canary Island to coincide with the scientist’s presence where he is attending the Festival Starmus.

The woman was arrested yesterday outside the hotel where he is staying, which is next to the Pirámide de Arona.

It was Dr. Hawking’s daughter, who manages her father’s email and social-media accounts, who triggered the alert after detecting hundreds of threatening messages from her.

Editorial comment: Life must be just a tad on the tricky side when you’re completely paralyzed in a motorized wheelchair and can only communicate using a computer-generated voice, only to find out that some lunatic American woman is coming to kill you… Not a very politically correct observation, admittedly, but give the man a break!

Oh, and the photo is of the great man and his first wife – it is not a photo of the woman who was stalking him.

(News: Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain)