Claire Foy feared a stalker would kill her and her daughter.
The ‘Crown’ actress suffers sleepless nights and has even begged colleagues not to tag her in social media pictures in case Jason Penrose – who sent the star’s publicist more than 1,000 explicit emails between 19 February 2021 and 7 February this year – uses them to track her movements after he turned up to her house and repeatdly rang her doorbell on 17 December last year, Thames Magistrates Court heard on Wednesday (02.11.22).
Prosecutor Varinder Hayre said: “Ms Foy has been targeted by Mr Penrose in a sustained, unwanted, fixated and obsessive behaviour that was intrusive due to his delusional beliefs.
“Mr Penrose was claiming she was interested in him romantically and he did believe she would like to star in a movie he was planning to make.”
The man launched a “campaign of consistent stalking”, which left the 38-year-old actress “in genuine fear for her safety and terrified and helpless in her own home”.
The prosecutor added: “Ms Foy was terrified as she did not know what his intention was. She was in fear for her and her daughter’s lives.
“She was frightened knowing he was somewhere…
“She struggles to sleep and is terrified in her own home. She feels like the freedoms before Mr Penrose contacted her have now gone.”
Claire also sent a letter to the court and admitted she had found the deluge of unwanted attention “traumatic”.
She wrote: “His relentless attempts to contact me are so traumatic. Every time I think this is sorted it is not.
“I feel like there is nothing that would stop him being able to contact me, he has affected every aspect of my life.”
The ‘Unsane’ actress was granted an interim protection order earlier this year but Penrose sent her another letter and a parcel from the hospital where he was being treated, and a five-year stalking protection order was issued in July.
In court on Wednesday, the man pleaded guilty to stalking involving serious alarm or distress, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years jail, and admitted two breaches of a stalking protection order.
He was granted bail ahead of sentencing at Wood Green Crown Court on 28 November and warned he may be facing “a lengthy prison sentence”.
District Judge William Nelson said: “I consider this offence passes the threshold of the powers this court has to impose sentence.
“I agree with the prosecution where the starting point is two years and six months imprisonment.
“The persistent conduct created very serious distress, a great deal of psychological harm and caused Ms Foy to make considerable changes to her lifestyle.”
Penrose, who is originally from the US, was told he must surrender his passport to police, not apply for travel documents, live and sleep as directed by the Islington NHS Trust, not contact Claire directly or indirectly or attend an address he knows or believes to be her address.
He replied: “I don’t have any interest in doing that.”
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