A nursing student was terrorised by an ex-boyfriend who stalked her every move, burned her clothes and sent naked photos to her family.
Feeling abandoned by “useless” police, she says the ordeal made her physically and mentally ill.
Stalker Anhar Hussain was only stopped when the Metropolitan Police authorised the use of new technology in harassment cases.
He has now pleaded guilty to harassment with fear of violence, carrying a maximum prison term of ten years.
He began messaging Leena - not her real name - on Snapchat in 2020. She has no idea how he obtained her details.
“He tried to ask me out so many times,” she says. “Eventually, I gave in.”
She thought she could date him for a few weeks, let it fizzle out and he’d move on, but when she tried to end it, he became abusive.
"[He was] threatening me, threatening to burn my house, expose explicit images,” she says.
Control
Hussain did post intimate images on WhatsApp, where Leena’s family saw them.
“Coming from a family that care about their dignity, shame, reputation – I was so scared,” she says. “My family basically disowned me.”
Forced to leave her family home, Leena felt she had no option but to move in with Hussain.
That enabled him to control her. He would scream in her face, throw objects at her and push her around.
He held the only set of house keys and would lock her in when he went out.
On one occasion, he kicked her out as a punishment and burned her clothes in front of her.
After she found the courage to leave for good, she privately obtained a non-molestation order, but Hussain continually flouted it.
“He was outside my house, parked up,” she says.
“Every time I would leave, he was following me and my friends, and constantly messaging me off of different apps.”
“Useless”
Leena repeatedly called the police but, she says: “I gave up. I was reporting it, it wasn’t going anywhere... It was just like a constant cycle.
That only emboldened Hussain.
“He was getting really confident that nothing was going to happen,” she says. “He was like, ‘They’re not going to take you seriously. Go report me, they’re not gonna do nothing about it’.”
The police, in her view, were “useless”.
“I really, really gave up on the police,” she says. “I just feel like they didn’t take it seriously.”
The stress took a severe toll.
“I couldn’t speak to any of my friends because I didn’t want to put them in danger as well,” she says.
“I was in and out of A&E. I was having panic attacks, which I’ve never experienced before. I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. I lost so much weight. I started underperforming at uni.”
She became terrified of leaving her home.
“I was constantly scared that he’d be there,” says Leena.
Escalation
By summer 2022, Leena would see Hussain following her “literally every day”.
“Most of the times he would approach me,” she says.
“Things got more and more intense. That’s when I thought I had to put an end to all of this.”
If she hadn’t done, she adds: “I feel like I would have been dead.”
Fortunately, things had changed at the Met. The force had just approved use of data analysis software, previously used in gang and drug-dealing cases, to investigate stalkers.
Lightning-quick analysis of phone data showed that in two-and-a-half weeks, Hussain had called Leena 932 times.
His phone had been in the same place as Leena’s 157 times in four weeks.
He was arrested, charged and remanded within 24 hours.
Guilty
At Snaresbrook Crown Court on November 21, Hussain – 23, of Review Road, Dagenham – pleaded guilty to harassment with fear of violence, arson, dangerous driving and other driving offences.
He will be sentenced on December 19.
Now, says Leena, she is “in a much better place” - but still not back to normal.
“I used to be so lively, so bubbly – but the whole situation drained it out of me. I feel like I’m not really that person anymore.
"I feel like I need to get myself back again. It’s a work in progress. I would need some time – and just to know I’m safe.”
She will apply for a restraining order when Hussain is sentenced.
But, she says, given his persistent breaches of her non-molestation order, “I’m 100 per cent worried about what he’s going to do once he comes out. I’m going to move away.”
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