A stalker was jailed today after writing a blog about raping and murdering a children’s author he had been harassing in real life for two years.
Greg Downing detailed the imagined attack on Katharine Quarmby, who is also a journalist for the New Statesman magazine, in an online novel.
The 40-year-old bombarded Ms Quarmby, who lives in north London, with phone calls and emails after they met through the Guardian’s dating website in 2008, Blackfriars crown court heard.
Mother-of-two Ms Quarmby called off their relationship after four weeks.
A short time later the writer, who was nominated for the Orange Prize for short story fiction for her book Fussy Freya in 2005, reported Downing to the police.
He was convicted of stalking her on three occasions before she found the blog after typing her name into Google.
The 29-page piece, titled A Novel: Katharine Quarmby, is about a man stalking the writer, burgling her home, raping and finally murdering her.
Judge Deva Pillay sentenced Downing, of Crowborough, East Sussex, to six months in jail for putting a person in fear of violence.
He said: “This can only be described as a campaign of harassment. It is clear that your harassment of Ms Quarmby has been deliberate and premeditated so as to cause her and her family the maximum discomfort, embarrassment and fear.”
In a witness statement read out to the court, Ms Quarmby said: “This seems like a fantasy or story which includes harassment, burglary of my home, rape and then finally murder.
“I am entirely worried about my personal safety and also my children’s safety.
“I feel as though I am a prisoner in my own home, despite help from the police, I still feel at risk. The threats made were of a very serious nature.”
Be the first to comment