‘She leaves me in fear’: Craig David speaks out after being stalked by a super-fan for five years
Craig David said he has been left feeling “violated and uncomfortable” in his own home after an obsessed super-fan stalked him for five years.
The Seven Days singer said he wants to be able to “walk down the street without looking over my shoulder” following the campaign by infatuated 31-year-old Tanya Jeal.
Jeal turned up at the singer’s home in November last year and repeatedly buzzed his intercom system while holding up a picture of the pair taken more than five years ago.
At a concert last October she stood still in the audience “dressed as Beyonce” holding up the same photo and threw a glove at him on stage.
She believed this was a reference to the film Serendipity, which she thought was his favourite movie.
More than five years ago she booked into the same hotel as the star and posted messages through the door saying things such as “you are an a***hole” and that she was his “motherf***ing girlfriend”, a court heard.
He opened up his door to Jeal and she was said to have asked him to come back to his room.
Later she wrote a letter to his parents claiming his management team were turning him into a “cash cow”.
The defendant, who is an author from Orpington, Kent, is said to have bombarded his management team with abusive messages.
Mr David said in a witness statement read to the court he was left fearful and scared about the “serious harm” she could cause.
He wrote: “The whole series of incidents have left me feeling violated and uncomfortable in my own home, particularly given the bipolar nature of the messages.
“She leaves me in fear. I have seen a number of situations where serious harm has been caused to other celebrities.
“I want to be able to walk down the street without looking over my shoulder and this woman is the only woman who has made me feel this way.
“When it started I tried to see her as a fan who was perhaps over-excited and I let her take a photograph of me.
“I hoped this would be enough. Her behaviour has since turned into something far more scary.”
Mr David had an interim Stalking Protection Order put in place in December which bans Jeal from contacting him.
A district judge at Bromley Magistrates Court in south east London will later today (FRI) decide whether to impose a permanent one.
Jeal has not contacted him since the order has been imposed but said she has stopped her behaviour because she believes he is gay rather than because of the order.
She claims she found this out in December after pals alerted her to a video on YouTube.
