Single mum Joanna Dawson froze in terror as her jealous, smirking ex played the audio file from a memory stick on her laptop.
She had told creepy Wayne Bamford she wanted nothing more to do with him.
Now he was showing off that he had secretly recorded her in her home – singing and talking to her young son.
A month earlier she had split from the obsessive Bamford. But he pitched up at her home claiming to have “evidence” she was seeing another man.
Shockingly, it was one of more than 1,600 recordings he went on to make of her after he was arrested for his terrifying campaign.
This week he admitted stalking causing serious alarm or distress.
He was bailed for sentence until October 19 but a judge at Bradford crown court warned he faces a “significant custodial sentence” because of the risks he poses to Joanna and “women in general”.
Today Joanna, 42, joins the Sunday People’s campaign to change how the authorities deal with stalkers.
We want the sex offender register to include serial stalkers to help cops monitor and track perpetrators.
The number of stalking offences reported has trebled in the past three years but the rate of charges has plunged.
Joanna is permanently scarred by her ordeal at the hands of Bamford. She said: “The way I live my life will never be the same again.
“I still can’t relax in my own home. I’m constantly worried about my email, phone and social media accounts being hacked.
“I don’t even go out on foot on my own or to parks as I used to with my son. I’m always aware of who’s following me when I’m out driving.
“This experience has ruined my life.”
Twisted Bamford hid two listening devices at Joanna’s home after she ended their rocky relationship. She found one but he carried on stalking her after his arrest and connected to a second listening bug at least 1,600 times in 15 days.
She said: “Finding these devices made me feel scared of Wayne.
“The invasion of my privacy still makes me feel sick to my stomach. Private conversations with friends and family were listened to, my personal life with my toddler son was overheard and recorded.
“These were special moments between a mother and child and not ones that I will ever get back.” Joanna’s nightmare began in May 2016 when she met garage owner Bamford, 47, a divorced dad-of-three, through work.
Joanna, of Brighouse, West Yorks, had split from her partner, the father of Isaac, now four.
She and Bamford hit it off and by the end of June were in a relationship. By the autumn she had left her sales director job for an accident management company to start a business with Bamford.
But he was already showing signs of being possessive. She said: “If I didn’t text back straight away he would text me repeatedly wanting to know why.
“And although I’ve never cheated on anyone, he obsessed that I was having an affair.
“He’d go through my mobile, he didn’t like me having male friends and he even got upset when I wore a conservative Karen Millen work dress saying it was too short.”
In January 2017, Bamford swore in front of Isaac, which prompted Joanna to dump him. But they still had to see each other because of work.
She said: “Wayne was still obsessed thinking I might be seeing another man. He’d constantly tell me about friends who’d caught their wives cheating with a spy camera or listening device.”
In February he turned up at her house with a USB stick. She said: “I was shocked when he plugged the USB stick into my laptop and I heard my own voice.
“I could hear myself chatting to Isaac, singing softly to myself as I did some housework. It seemed crazy he was spying on me. Wayne apologised but I was terrified and angry and shouted at him to leave.”
Joanna feared the police would not believe her but over the following days Bamford seemed to know where Joanna was and would ring her there.
She turned detective and discovered devices looking like plug adaptors contained sim cards which could be used for snooping. To Joanna’s horror she found one plugged in next to her bed and contacted the police.
She said: “I was very frightened but Wayne denied planting it. Police said they couldn’t charge him with anything unless they had evidence to link him to the device.
This meant it had to be sent off for forensic examination.”
Joanna cut all ties with Bamford but she still felt she was being spied on.
She said; “I decided to change the locks. As soon as I came off my mobile from booking the locksmith I got a menacing text from Wayne to say, ‘You don’t need to change the locks.’”
Thinking her iPhone must be bugged, Joanna contacted Apple to ask them to check it.
She changed her phone number but Bamford still seemed to know her every move. Joanna spent hours looking for a second listening device.
She said: “I crept around trying to be silent. I stopped calling friends. I didn’t want to put on the lights in case someone was watching.
“Friends I told I thought I was being bugged thought I was going mad.”
In March, two weeks after finding the first bug, she discovered the second, on a wall near the TV.
The police then swept her five-bedroom home for more devices. She said: “I was sickened and shaken. It felt so sinister. I didn’t feel safe. I believe he should have been kept in custody while police investigated but he was out on bail.”
He continued contacting her even after being arrested and at one point posted a toy bracelet that belonged to Isaac through the front door.
Finally, nine months after Joanna found the first device, cops had evidence they needed to charge Bamford.
She said he had been ringing the sim cards in the devices, using multiple phones. She said: “I never realised these devices existed and could be bought so easily and cheaply.
Joanna became so stressed she would take sleeping pills and disguise herself in a blonde wig in the car.
She is still being counselled and said: “The worst feeling was wondering if I was going paranoid. I hope telling my story leads to stronger laws.
“I don’t know if I will ever get over what happened. Until Bamford is jailed I am still living in fear.”
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