An Indian man who stalked a woman over a period of 18 months after she once served him in a shop in London has been jailed by the Isleworth Crown Court for a total of 29 months after he pleaded guilty, the police said on Thursday.
Sharma began stalking his victim, who was aged in her 20s, after she served him in a shop in Wembley in November 2017. After that brief interaction, Sharma returned later that same day with his father and asked her to marry him.
Four days later, the victim changed jobs but Sharma found out where she worked and managed to obtain her phone number. His behaviour escalated and he bombarded the victim with multiple messages via phone, text and social media.
This consisted of the victim receiving up to 40 calls a day and Sharma continually watching her at her place of work. CCTV footage showed him defecating on her doorstep several times. In July 2018, Sharma was charged with harassment but after being bailed from court he continued to pursue his victim.
Sharma’s stalking continued persistently to such a point that the victim quit her job and moved away from the area in an attempt to get away from him.
However, this only seemed to fuel his campaign and he systematically began contacting people who knew the victim, trying to find out where she had gone. On April 16, 2019, Sharma was arrested by police after intelligence linked him to an address in Wembley.
Sharma was incessant in his pursuit of his victim. He would phone her up to 40 times a day and use around 15 different numbers to contact her, making it near impossible to block his calls, and would also get friends and relatives to contact her on his behalf.
Feces recovered from the victims doorstep matches the DNA provided by Sharma.
The victim has been left devastated by Sharma’s actions and I can only hope that his imprisonment offers some form of respite for her. She has shown immense bravery in reporting him to police and supporting this court case.
