Claire Foy
(Picture: PA Archive)Claire Foy’s obsessed stalker who bombarded the actress with thousands of emails and turned up unannounced at her home has been handed a suspended prison sentence.
Jason Penrose, 49, left The Crown star terrified that he was going to come and kill her and her daughter during a six-month campaign of stalking from August 2021.
He sent more than 1,000 emails to Foy’s publicist Emma Jackson, including one which referred to rape. In December 2021, Penrose turned up at her home and repeatedly rang the doorbell.
At the Old Bailey on Friday, Penrose was sentenced to 22 months in prison suspended for two years, for one count of stalking and two counts of breaching an interim stalking order.
“You became infatuated with her, deluding yourself that she would be willing to act in a film and that you had some sort of romantic attachment to her”, said Judge David Aaronberg KC.“You began sending emails to her agents, both in the UK and the USA.”
The court heard he sent 287 emails to the talent agency representing Foy, and continued the pursuit on Linkedin and Instagram when his email address was blocked.
He then sent more than 1,000 emails to Ms Jackson in November 2021.
“You believed that Ms Foy wished to communicate with you and engage in some sort of relationship with you, on both a professional and personal basis”, said the judge.
“The reality is that Ms Foy has never met you, never responded to the hundreds of requests which you have made to see her and wants nothing whatever to do with you.”
Penrose, who is in the UK illegally, went on to track down Foy’s sister, and he turned up at a café where the actress often went.
“On December 17 2021, in the early afternoon, Ms Foy was woken when you attended at her home and pressed the door buzzer”, said the judge.
“Her daughter answered the telecom system and you said, ‘It’s Jason, I’m outside’.
“You went on to ring the doorbell seven times, putting Ms Foy into a state of considerable fear. She was particularly distressed that you had discovered her home address.”
The court heard Penrose was detained in a mental health facility after his arrest in December 2021, and has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
He wrote to Foy in February 2022, inviting her to visit him in hospital, and he breached an interim stalking protection order by writing again to the star.
The judge said of the impact on Foy: “She suffered great emotional anxiety and difficulty sleeping as a result of your behaviour. She has felt very vulnerable and has had to make significant lifestyle changes, especially since you turned up at her home in December 2021.
“She had to spend substantial amounts of money on security in order to feel more secure.”
In a statement to the court, Foy said: “I have felt terrified and helpless in my own home. I have had to have numerous meetings with my daughters’ school, neighbours, family members and work colleagues who had all been affected by Mr Penrose’s stalking and harassment and all have legitimate fears and concerns regarding his behaviours.”
Of the possibility of Penrose being released, she added: “I will again be scared to leave my front door, pick my daughter up from school and return home at night.
“I will have to follow police guidelines of having my phone on at all times, remaining alert and fearful…. I feel like the freedoms I enjoyed before Mr Penrose contacted me have now gone and I view the world in a much more fearful way as a direct result of his actions.”
Under the conditions of his suspended sentence, Penrose must continue to receive mental health treatment and cooperate with his deportation back to the USA.
Penrose is now subject of an indefinite restraining order, banning him from contacting the actress, sending her letters, gifts, parcels, or packages, entering Camden or Islington, and going within 100 metres of any address he believes Foy might be present.
