A HOMELESS charity had ‘mental health concerns’ over an American national accused of travelling to the UK to stalk a famous Oxfordshire YouTuber and researcher.

Augustine Lopez has been charged with stalking between February 12 and March 28 of astrophysicist Dr Rebecca Smethurst – known online as Dr Becky.

The 47-year-old is accused of travelling from Florida to London Heathrow in February last year with the sole purpose of seeing Dr Smethurst.

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He is also accused of sending his luggage to Dr Smethurst’s place of work and camping outside despite allegedly never having met or spoken to her.

During his trial at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday (March 5), evidence was heard from a representative from St Mungo’s, a UK homeless charity.

They said they were aware that Lopez had been rough sleeping around Oxford, including outside the Denys Wilkinson Building where Dr Smethurst works.

He was also spotted sleeping in Friars Entry in Oxford and frequent welfare checks were carried out on him.

The charity asked Lopez if he wanted them to contact his family in the US but he said no. When asked if he was okay, he responded yes.

Lopez was also spotted rough sleeping at London Heathrow where he flew in without a hotel reservation with, what the Prosecution claim, the sole purpose of meeting Dr Smethurst.

Dr Smethurst works as a junior research fellow at the University of Oxford.

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Wanting to ‘open up the world of astrophysics’ and promote it online, she made various social media accounts five years ago.

She has since amassed more than 126k followers on Instagram, 723k followers on YouTube and over 50k followers on Twitter/X after.

In 2020, the 33-year-old won the Mary Somerville Medal and Prize for the work on her YouTube channel.

It is believed Lopez was one of these followers and had an ‘obsession’ with her.

Lopez, of Orange County, Florida, has denied the offence.

Evidence was also heard from the receptionist of the Denys Wilkinson Building who said Lopez had a ‘strange demeanour’ and always faced her ‘sideways on’.

He was seen one morning outside the building knocking on the reception at about 8am on February 21. When asked if he was okay, Lopez said he was there to see Dr Smethurst.

The receptionist said that the researcher was not in the building and was asked if he wanted his email and phone number passed onto her.

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Lopez declined and was not seen at the university again by the receptionist.

It was also heard that Lopez was allegedly leaving the researcher unwanted messages and emails.

The trial continues.