Man accused of stalking Paris Hilton ordered to mental hospital

A man accused of stalking Paris Hilton and disobeying a court order requiring him to stay away from the socialite is mentally incompetent to stand trial and will be sent to a state mental hospital, a judge ruled Thursday.

James Brian Rainford, 37, was found by a Van Nuys Superior Court judge to lack the ability to understand the charges against him and assist his attorney at trial, court personnel said.

Rainford was charged with two felony counts of stalking and three misdemeanor counts of disobeying a court order.

Rainford was arrested July 4 by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies after authorities received a call of a man standing on the beach and looking into Hilton's home in the 21000 block of Pacific Coast Highway, said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.

Deputies were directed by paparazzi to Rainford, who was arrested without incident, according to Whitmore.

Rainford attacked Hilton's then-boyfriend, Cy Waits, on April 27 before Waits entered a Van Nuys courthouse to testify in the case of Nathan Parada, who was later convicted of an attempted residential burglary at the heiress' home on Aug. 24, 2010.

Rainford pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge on April 28, was found to be in violation of his probation from a case involving an earlier run-in with a Hilton bodyguard and was immediately sentenced to 227 days in jail and three years probation.

He was released from jail May 20, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Inmate Information Center's website.