Stanton Hill stalker jailed for six-and-a-half years

Ritchie Fox, 25, was jailed for six and a half years at Nottingham Crown Court today (Friday). He was also given an indefinite restraining order.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking and one of perverting the course of justice.

Fox, formerly of Co-operative Street, began a seven-month campaign against his ex-girlfriend in December 2012 after she had split up with him earlier in the year.

During their relationship Fox had secretly taken control of passwords and security settings for her social media pages and synched their phones so that he would see her messages.

And in just one month, he visited the sites more than 2,000 times.

He sent obsessive amounts of text messages, some of which had violent and graphic sexual content which also suggested Fox knew where she was and what she was doing.

The victim’s work Christmas party was ruined when she and her mother saw Fox following them in his car on route to the venue.

Her mum dropped her off and even waited in the car park for half an hour to make sure he didn’t turn up.

But Fox sent a tirade of text messages about the party and the victim was so scared, she left early.

It later transpired that Fox had started to use a different number. His victim’s mother also received text messages from Fox which contained threats against her daughter.

In interview with police, Fox accused the woman of harassing him by sending text messages and emails. In fact, these messages had been sent by him to himself.

He also let the tyres down on her car while she was at work and arranged for several takeaway orders to be sent to her home address.

DI Peter Quinn from Public Protection said: “This was a resource intensive inquiry investigated by a dedicated team of officers who carried out painstaking and detailed enquiries.“Stalking is something Nottinghamshire Police takes seriously and I hope that this case highlights just what a scary experience it can be for those targeted.

“If you are in fear of someone who is harassing you, report it.”