Notorious "Sock Pervert" of Little Willows was tried yesterday.听Gerald Cox, 67, went on a 9 month sock stealing spree, breaking into houses to rummage through laundry.听The police found over 5000 socks in his bed.听Cox was sent for psychiatric evaluation after his defence argued that he had suffered a mental breakdown when his wife left him. At first he just wondered from room to room, like he was searching for her.听Now that she had gone, he had lost himself maybe that is why; he wasn't searching for her but himself.听He struggled to breathe, the weight of losing her pressed down on him like the gravity of Jupiter.听Moira is her name, was her name.听He walked into the bedroom and opened a drawer to find it stuffed with odd socks.听He ripped it out of the chest.听This was wrong, socks should be in pairs, things worked better that way, after all the animals went into the ark two by two.听 He picked up each individual sock and arranged them precisely on the bed.听He then set about searching the rest of the house.听He only managed to make 2 pairs of socks out of 17.听His search was so determined that he had even found the courage to go through Moira's things.听Realising that soon that all her stuff would have to go made everything ache and his search more pressing.听At 3am he decided to sleep on the sofa; he couldn't bear to face all the incompleteness on his bed. Every day that week he had sympathy dinners at relatives' houses which meant that at some point during the proceedings he could sneak out and go looking in drawers and washing baskets.听He would then stuff any socks into his pockets to take them home.听 He found 11 socks but none made pairs.听It was comforting to have such a small problem in an ocean of misery; at least it was at first. Over the next few days he made the funeral arrangements.听In those days, he still pretended to be a person but he had already separated mind and body, seeing the world from outside himself.听It had been like this since Moira had got back from the doctors with the news.听He felt as though life was something that happened to him.听 Before that he believed that he could be master of his own destiny. When the funeral was over the void got larger and people stopped calling.听He waded through the tasks of settling the estate like trying to persuade the gas company not to cut him off because the account was in her name.听He called anywhere that had a lost property box, unsurprisingly he found nothing.听The will was read, everything was left to him or the cat rescue centre as they didn't have any children.听He visited the local laundrettes but didn't find much except for some funny looks from the assistants. Washing lines seemed a fruitful source being quite agile for his age he could easily scale a garden fence. By October he had visited most of the neighbourhood.听The weather changed and there were dark mutterings about a pervert foot fetishist on the loose.听Gerald was worried that his little village was going to the dogs and made a mental note not to hang anything out.听During this time his collection had grown to nearly 297 but he only had 17 pairs. Then there was a knock at the door, two policemen.听Being a public spirited sort he invited them in and gave them a cup of tea.听When they showed interest in his collection he realised something was a foot- excuse the pun.听He was given a caution and given 36 days to return the socks.听The problem was that he couldn't remember where they had come from and the thought of the house being empty again was too much. He went up to the attic and found his old tools.听In the mornings he would watch his neighbours leave for the day, carefully open the doors and search for the odd sock bag or drawer, empty it and carry it home.听It was a particularly fruitful period, he found 76 pairs.听 It was while he was at Mrs McKinney's that he was caught.听She had returned to collect her son's PE kit.听He must admit that it would have looked bad, him riffling through their washing basket and all.听She got him in an arm lock and pinned him against the wall while she dialled 999.听He always marvelled at the way women could multi task. The police came and put him in the cell.听Despite the brightness and beigeness of the cell it was a relief not to be in the house alone.听The guard's footsteps out in the hall were such a comforting sound.听He stretched out on the bench, so much roomier than the sofa and had his best night鈥檚 sleep in ages. At the interview he was confident that he would explain himself and they would see it was all a frightful misunderstanding.听He was shocked to find himself going to court and stunned to see the whole street turn out for the trial.听After all, nobody came to see him when Moira died.听He pleaded guilty and all 578 of the socks were sent to the police for returning.听He was asked to pay costs and sent to the shrinks; so here he is. "Mr Cox it seems to me that you have a disassociative disorder.听At first this helped you keep calm and focussed while taking care of your wife.听However, as time has progressed your sense of detachment has grown. Losing control of your life and acting out your sense of grief by trying to complete pairs of socks.听If we work together we will help you rebuild your sense of self." Gerald nodded his head; it seemed like a sensible idea. | 
