"He could not stand the victim having her own life"
A jealous stalker has been jailed for four years after he pretended to be someone else to subject his partner to a campaign of abuse.
Jantibhai Patel, of Dunchurch, was said to have made his victim feel like she was “being attacked every day for six months”.
Patel, also known as Vijay, entered a relationship with the woman in April 2019.
He quickly grew jealous of her seeing family and friends. Warwickshire Police said he set up fake phone numbers to hound her with messages.
Patel cloned her phone and would intercept messages, replying on her behalf.
Warwick Crown Court heard he declined social events without his partner knowing.
It escalated into a relentless pattern of harassment and abuse, including malicious communications, fraud and stalking.
The victim’s friends and family soon began receiving malicious messages from Patel.
He also set up policies in her name, which meant she was forced to contact Action Fraud for these to be cancelled.
The court heard that it would take a few hours to do this each time. At the same time, she was supporting her pregnant daughters and caring for her seriously ill parents.
Patel also created a fake social media account in his partner’s name and posted embarrassing messages. To protect herself, she disabled her account and only became aware of these fake accounts when friends told her.
Whilst on holiday with her friends, Patel sent fake screenshots to his partner that indicated she had been obscene and derogatory about his family.
She would spend a lot of the time on holiday apologising for things she had not done to save her relationship with 58-year-old Patel.
All this time, Patel was still in a relationship with the victim and offered to help her find the person responsible.
Police said the victim confided in him about the abuse she was receiving from an “unknown” person, but he would blame her for “bringing it on herself”.
Unbeknown to her, Patel was her abuser.
Despite changing mobile numbers and email addresses several times and only sharing her new number with Patel and close family and friends, the abuse continued.
In October 2019, the victim became suspicious that Patel was tracking her and took her car to a garage, where a tracking device was discovered.
A few days later, the woman reported Patel for entering her house without her knowledge.
Neighbours said they saw him going to the house on his own on several occasions despite the victim only giving him permission to do so once to walk her dogs.
Detectives analysed the tracking device and the phone numbers which linked Patel to the stalking campaign.
Police also seized his phone and found photos relating to where the victim was planning to go and who she was planning to meet.
Patel pleaded guilty to stalking involving alarm and distress.
The 58-year-old was jailed for four years.
Detective Constable Paul Vaughton, from Warwickshire Police, said:
“Like many perpetrators of domestic abuse Patel was jealous and controlling.
“He could not stand the victim having her own life and set up a whole new persona to harass and intimidate her, all the while portraying himself as the victim.
“It was an incredibly complex investigation and the lengths to which Patel went to cause alarm and distress to the victim and her family were truly unbelievable.
“All the time he was trying to isolate her from her family and friends.
“I would like to thank the victim for the bravery and resolve she has shown throughout this investigation.
“It had a huge impact on her life, and I hope she can take some comfort from the sentence and look forward to more positive times ahead.
“Finally, I hope this case sends a clear message to those who cause so much damage to people’s lives through stalking and harassment.
“No matter how complicated the web of lies, we will unpick it, find the truth, and deliver justice.”
After the sentencing, the victim said: “It was a totally destabilising experience for me, to suddenly become the target of a malicious hate campaign from an unknown person not knowing what was going to be thrown at me from one day to the next and not knowing why someone would want to do it.
“It had repercussions on all aspects of my life; social, financial and technical, to the extent that all of these were reduced to the bare minimum.
“It was like being attacked every day for six months.”
“Things only changed when my son became so worried and came back to live with me as I had been led to believe I was being watched and followed.
“It was then that Patel began to change his stance, starting to accuse me of bringing this not only on myself but also on him and his family, adding to my already high levels of anxiety, stress, and guilt.
“If it was not for Warwickshire Police, primarily DC Paul Vaughton, and the CPS, despite having a strong suspicion towards the end, I would never have been able to prove that my partner was behind this.
“I cannot thank Paul enough for his validation and belief in my experience, and his determination to bring the offender to justice.”
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