A sick stalker made his ex-partner's life a 'living nightmare' by scrawling abusive messages on her car and harassing her with constant emails, phone calls and texts after their split. Harrison Wild would send his victim abusive messages and threatened to harm himself during his three-month campaign of terror.
Following one incident, the 22-year-old was arrested and released on bail with police warning him not to contact the woman, Stoke-on-Trent Live reports. However, Wild immediately messaged her and demanded she drop her complaint against him.
Wild, of Fenlow Avenue, Bucknall, has now dodged an immediate prison sentence after pleading guilty to to stalking involving serious alarm or distress between February 11 and May 12, 2022, and doing an act intending to pervert the course of public justice.
Prosecutor David Bennett told Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court that the defendant and his victim has been in a five-year relationship, with the pair breaking up November 2021. He did not take the separation well and flooded her with 700 emails over five months after she blocked him on all social media.
Wild's behaviour deteriorated in February of this year after his ex started a new relationship. An encounter at Fiction in Hanley on February 11 resulted in a confrontation between Wild and two other men, which ended in him being thrown out of the club and arrested. In his basis of plea, which was accepted by the prosecution, Wild said he had not followed his ex-partner to the club.
Mr Bennet said: "Following that incident the defendant continued to send emails to the complainant. On March 27 the complainant parked her car near her new partner's address. When she woke up the next morning she had two emails from the defendant, in which he said he had damaged her car. The emails were also threatening and abusive."
The damage included dents to the body of the car, smashed wing mirrors and the rear tyres being slashed. A similar incident happened a short time later, which saw the defendant scratch abusive messages in the paintwork.
Mr Bennett told the court that the cost of repairing the damage was estimated at around £1,500, which the victim could not afford, meaning she had to suffer the embarrassment of driving a car with abusive messages on it. Wild was arrested on April 2.
Mr Bennett said: "He was released on bail and told not to contact the complainant. He contacted her that very day and asked her to drop the charges. He didn't want to go to jail."
Wild continued to bombard his victim with phone calls and messages, sometimes using other people's phones and social media accounts. In her victim impact statement, the complainant said her life had become a living nightmare and that she was fearful of leaving her home.
The court heard that that Wild had no previous convictions. Rob Holt, mitigating, said that the defendant was 'fully remorseful, for how he had behaved, and had offered to pay to have the complainant's car repaired.
Mr Holt also explained that Wild had spent some of his teenage years in care. During this period his relationship with the complainant was the only permanence he had in his life, which was a factor behind his behaviour when that relationship ended.
Mr Holt said: "He has now started a new relationship, and has also recently gained new employment. He has referred himself to counselling services.
"He is concerned about returning to jail. It terrifies him that he could lose his liberty today."
Judge Graeme Smith sentenced Wild to 21 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months. He also imposed a five-year restraining order, barring him from coming within 10 metres of his victim, contacting her in any way, or coming within 50 metres or her home or workplace.
Judge Smith said: "Mr Holt described you as naïve, immature and stupid, and he was right. You acted like a spoilt child. When you couldn't get what you wanted, you threw an extended tantrum."
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