A music teacher at one of the country's top public schools was jailed for four months yesterday for sending obscene mail to his former childminder.

Peter Brownlie, 39, who has just resigned as head of brass at Christ's Hospital, Horsham, admitted subjecting Carole Drew to a two-year campaign of harassment which has left her frightened to go out or answer her phone.

Horsham magistrates heard that between March 1998 and March 2000 the father-of-two bombarded Mrs Drew with obscene mail and telephone calls. On one occasion he left a pornographic picture on her car windscreen.

Chairman of the bench Mary Hamilton told him: "This was harassment amounting to sending particularly offensive and intimidating material over a long period. The fact it took place over three separate periods denotes persistence."

She said the fact Brownlie had selected Mrs Drew at random gave concern for the public at large.

Magistrates placed a restraining order on Brownlie forbidding him to contact Mrs Drew or Kate Cooper, who moved into Mrs Drew's former home in Southwater.

Brownlie was also banned from driving for two years after he admitted drink driving and fined £500 or given the option of serving a 14-day concurrent sentence.

Anne-Marie Blunden, prosecuting, said Mrs Drew had been a childminder for Brownlie's family for four years.

In March 1998 she received an "obscene and grossly offensive" letter and called the police. Another seven letters arrived which she handed over to the police unopened.

Two were found to contain human excrement and pubic hair.

Mrs Drew moved in April 1999 but received more obscene letters when the new occupant of her former home, Mrs Cooper, forwarded her mail to her new address. They contained obscene images.

Mrs Cooper began receiving telephone calls intended for Mrs Drew which she tried to trace. In March this year Mrs Drew returned to her car after taking her two daughters swimming at Christ's Hospital sports centre. She found an obscene picture and message under her windscreen wipers.

Mrs Blunden said Mrs Drew was now frightened to go out in her car.

Brownlie was arrested after his car was spotted by CCTV cameras near Mrs Drew's car at Christ's Hospital and after he had been seen in the vicinity of Christ's Hospital station phone box. When police arrived at the school they found Brownlie in his car. He had drunk more than twice the legal limit.

David Street, defending, said Brownlie had picked Mrs Drew as his target at random from his address book.

He said: "It became something of an addiction. When most of the letters were written and calls made, Brownlie was under the effects of alcohol. It came as a relief and a release to be caught."