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An ‘obsessive’ Bulwell man stalked his ex-partner of 20 years by climbing into her house by a ladder, hiding in her garden shed and daubing graffiti on her bedroom wall, Nottingham Magistrates Court has heard.

Ryan Smith set fire to the woman’s pictures and urinated on her clothing after moving out of her home last November.

His ex-partner described being terrified as he stood in the garden and stared into the house ‘countless times’ over the next five months, said prosecutor Donna Fawcett.

He continued to break in, slept in her shed overnight and threatened suicide, saying: “I did this to feel close to you,” or “I did this to hear your voice.”

Smith, aged 36, burned a garden trellis ‘so she would know he had been there,’ and became obsessed with the fact that she was seeing someone else.

He ‘threatened to turn up at her place of work and create a scene’ and placed a tracking app on her phone to monitor where she went.

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When he shouted: “If I could get my hands on you I would kill you,” she believed him because he had been so violent throughout their relationship, Ms Fawcett said.

In February he stripped wallpaper from a bedroom wall and painted a broken heart with the word ‘troll hunter.’

Smith threatened to take an overdose, hid in her garden and, after police took him away, returned later to let himself into the house and shout abuse.

He stole her keys so the locks had to be changed and swiped her bank card while she was in the bath to order a takeaway.

He turned up, drunk, saying ‘I've got nothing because of you,’ and threatened to put her new partner’s feet ‘in the chip pan’.

"He is physically making me ill with his actions,” his ex-partner said. “I feel that I am living on my nerves. I cannot carry on like this."

The court heard he was 'disgusted with himself' and acted out of 'frustration, anger and bitterness,' after she started a new relationship.

Smith, of Cawston Gardens, admitted stalking involving fear of violence on the day of his trial.

On Wednesday Nottingham magistrates imposed a 26-week prison term, suspended for two years, with rehabilitation days.

Costs of £428 were ordered and a restraining order was made.

‘Obsessive’ Bulwell man daubed graffiti on ex-partner's bedroom wall during five-month stalking campaign