A terrified mum is living in fear as her stalker who tormented her for a decade – just like in Netflix ‘s hit drama You – is set to be released from prison .
Lorraine Mitchell, 54, was stalked by Sherzad Salih, 38, who followed her everywhere, called her up to 40 times an hour and sent her inappropriate messages.
His creepy behaviour strikes unerring parallels with that of Joe Goldberg, who finds out everything about graduate Guinevere Beck in the popular drama You.
Salih was jailed for four years at Hove Crown Court in October 2017 for stalking Ms Mitchell, but is now set to be freed later this year.
His upcoming release has left mum-of-three Ms Mitchell, from St Leonards, East Sussex, frightened he could strike again.
She said: "The memory of being stalked never leaves you and I stay vigilant. I am worried he might go after my daughter.
"I don’t want to move because I know he will go after my kids.
"The thing with stalking is that it’s not one big thing – the police were looking at each incident as isolated events.
"But with stalking its about the bigger picture – on their own each event may seem unremarkable, but when you put them all together it’s a totally different picture."
Salih first approached Ms Mitchell in her office car park in June 2007 when he asked her for a date.
But the stalker, originally from Iran, had already found out everything about the divorced counsellor.
Ms Mitchell claims over the next ten years he made her life a misery.
She said: "When I hung up he would keep calling, calling me 30 to 40 times an hour.
"At one point, my cat was killed and placed underneath my neighbour’s car tires."
It has never been proved that Salih had anything to do with the killing.
Ms Mitchell continued: "He was sending me inappropriate messages all the time, he was following me at the supermarket, he would sit in his car outside my house.
"I was terrified. I was carrying a red alarm with me at all times and I became afraid to go out – I stopped wearing high heels and I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder."
She only found out about Salih’s 23 previous convictions when he appeared in court.
The driver has a lifetime restraining order against her but a history of breaching them.
A spokesman for Sussex Police said: "After the case we asked Lorraine to help this force and others to better understand stalking behaviours from a victim’s perspective.
"She had a valuable input, with many people and groups, in delivering some multi agency training to police and the CPS in 2018.
"Our training in this area of work is continuing."
PC Jenna Boyd, from the force, added: "This woman has endured a gradually escalating campaign of systematic stalking by Salih.
"The experience left her terrified for the safety of both herself and her family.
"Although Salih did not overtly threaten her or attempt any physical attack, his actions have had a significant emotional impact on her, and we are glad that the court has reflected this in the sentence.
"We hope that the sentence and the Restraining Order will give Salih a dose of reality, and that the victim will now be able to move on with her life without fear of his presence in it."
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