A stalking victim came home to find her ex had broken in and was hiding in her daughter's bed. David Peters, 37, began his terrifying campaign when she broke off the relationship after just six months.
He refuse to believe she wanted the split and began breaking into her house, sitting outside in his car, tracked her car and constantly texted her to comment on her appearance so she knew he was watching. She said that even before she broke it off in July last year he would quiz her over her social media from years before and added: "I stopped being me."
In her witness statement she said: "My life was a living hell. David made it clear that I had nothing and would have nothing but him and he was the only one I could rely on…”
“He would go through social media and pick out comments I wrote years ago questioning me asking who they were and why I was commenting things on their posts…”
“No matter what I said it was the wrong answer, and David only hears what David wants to hear…Every day was a new argument…
“He would wear me down so much that I didn’t even recognise myself…when I was with David, I stopped being me. I have had to buy a new car and change my appearance…I have had to put cameras in my house and in my car.”
Before his arrest, one of several cameras she had installed in her home caught him breaking in multiple times.
Even after his arrest he breached the bail conditions within five days of being released.
Peters, of Nightingale Crescent, Bracknell, was sentenced to two years and eight months imprisonment for coercive and controlling behaviour and stalking with serious alarm and distress at Guildford Crown Court.
Peters is also subject to a ten-year restraining order, which restricts him having any contact with his ex-partner or her family members, entering the area they reside in, or attending anywhere he reasonably believes them to be.
Sentencing him, the judge commented on how troubling the stalking was, and how “plain the serious alarm and distress caused to her was and the substantial adverse effect on her”.
Although Peters had no previous convictions, the judge was convinced that “these offences are so serious that only custody is appropriate.”
Investigating Officer, Emily Nurcombe said “The survivor in this case has been extremely brave in coming forward and supporting the investigation for almost a year from the time Peters was arrested and charged to the time that he was sentenced.
"I commend her for having the courage and strength to speak out and ensure that Peters was brought to justice for the obsessive and frightening behaviour he has subjected her to.
"I hope this sentence and restraining order will go some way in providing closure to the survivor in this case, and I would personally like to thank her for her resilience.
"Cases of domestic abuse are taken seriously in Surrey, and Surrey Police are committed to combatting both physical and physiological domestic abuse, bringing perpetrators to justice, and safeguarding their victims”.
