Pontefract stalker hounded woman for two years with 'campaign of terror'
A stalker who “manipulated, controlled and inflicted emotional scars” on a woman has been jailed.
Andrew Philip Russell, 35, left the woman traumatised through his campaign of terrifying abuse which lasted almost two years.
He was jailed at York Crown Court for five years and four months.
Russell of George Street, Pontefract, was convicted of stalking involving serious alarm or distress.
Russell, who was in a relationship with another woman when he began to stalk the victim, went to great lengths to intimidate and cause the victim to fear for her life.
The victim initially believed she was being stalked by an ex-partner who was in prison for assaulting her, and who she believed was asking other people to target her on his behalf.
Unbeknown to her, it was Russell behind the threats and intimidation masking them as though they were orchestrated by the ex-partner from prison.
The campaign of abuse began with her car being fitted with a tracking device, followed by threatening messages from fake social media accounts, and numerous attempts to hack into her social media and email accounts.
Masquerading as her ex-partner, the threats included telling her that he was “angry at being in prison”, that he “wants to punish her” that “people were being paid to watch her”.
Terrifyingly, she came home one day to find her house had been broken into and later discovering that her wifi and security cameras had been disabled.
She then began to receive phone calls and voice messages threatening her and her family from an unknown person and voices she did not recognise.
Still believing the threats to be organised by her ex-partner who assaulted her, and not Russell, who was pretending to support her, the victim became so afraid of the threats and stalking, that she refused to attend court to give evidence against the ex-partner.
Another witness in the case was also threatened with violence and he too refused to attend court.
However, as the abuse continued, the victim soon began to suspect that the threats and intimidation were not actually from her ex-partner at all, but from Russell.
The police investigation found that Russell was indeed behind the stalking campaign. He was caught when CCTV showed him topping up one of the multiple phone numbers used to stalk the victim.
The victim was forced to move home several times as each time Russell found her, on one occasion, claiming he taken a wrong turn down the street where she had moved to, forcing her to move and uproot her children yet again.
In her victim personal statement, read out on her behalf at court, she said: “The prolonged abuse and manipulation have had a profound effect on my mental health.
“Living in constant fear, uncertainty, and instability has caused significant emotional distress on me and my children.
“I have experienced anxiety, and a persistent sense of insecurity, which has affected my ability to function day-to-day.
“We have already served a sentence - living in fear, displaced, and traumatised.”
A full stalking protection order order was initially granted for five years, however, in court, Judge Morris asked that he is given a 10-year order on his release from prison.