A stalker has been jailed and banned from a South Hams village after he became obsessed with a neighbour.

James Ward had only fleeting contact with the professional woman but became fixated with her and started leaving roses on the doorstep of her home.

His behaviour got worse when she turned down his offer of marriage and tried to deter him by telling him she had a boyfriend. He started making threats against her partner and attacking his car.

The stalking carried on for 18 months and turned into a campaign of hate with Ward shouting at her from his house as she walked her dog and making rude gestures if they passed in the street.

He was arrested and bailed with conditions not to contact her but carried on with the harassment even after a Stalking Protection Order was imposed by magistrates.

He put nails into the tyres of her boyfriend’s car twice and was eventually locked up in December last year when he attacked her car with a hammer, smashing windows, cutting his hand and smearing blood on the car and her home.

He tried to disguise himself in a wig during the incident but it fell off and police recovered it at the scene.

The victim wrote a personal statement saying the final attack was like a scene from a horror movie and that during the 18 months of stalking made her want to move away.

She had been so scared of meeting Ward that she never followed the same routine and dreaded leaving her house. She said ‘my home went from being a haven to being a prison’.

Ward, aged 57, admitted harassment that caused serious alarm and distress and three breaches of a stalking protection order. He was jailed for three years and four months by Judge James Patrick at Exeter Crown Court.

The judge told him: “You developed a fixation with an entirely innocent person and caused her misery, the like of which is hard to describe. Her personal statement spoke of the devastating effect of your behaviour, which all arose out of a single act of kindness.

“Your behaviour became more bizarre and more threatening. It began with unwanted presents and progressed to you approaching and asking her to marry you. You invaded her privacy by going to her home.

“You were told to stay away but refused to do so and threatened her partner with violence. You did not desist even after a stalking order was made and continued to leer at her out of your window.

“You caused very serious distress and harm. This is a bad case which became more serious and more distressing over time.”

The judge made a six-year restraining order banning Ward from contacting the woman or her partner or visiting the town they reside in.

Mr Lewis Aldous, prosecuting, said the stalking started in June 2022.

He started sending her roses and cards and accosted her as she walked her dog and asked her to marry him. She tried to be friendly and polite in saying no but his attitude changed when she told him she had a partner.

She became more alarmed when he spoke to her about a painting she had in her kitchen because she knew he had never been into her home and it was only visible from the back garden, meaning he must have gone there.

He found out where she worked and tried to e-mail her there, meaning she had to explain the situation to colleagues and leaving her feeling trapped with no aspect of her life untouched.

Ward started making threats to her partner and attacking his car during 2023, by which time he was in breach of bail conditions or a stalking order, or both. In early December she found the word Liar scraped into the ice on her windscreen and he attacked her car a few days later.

He was arrested and told police he had drunk two bottles of wine and could not remember what he had done.

Miss Hollie Gilbery, defending, said Ward has recently been diagnosed with ADHD. He had lived a blameless life and made a positive contribution to his community before these events.

He now plans to move away and re-settle in Totnes after his release and will comply with the restraining order. She said: “He has learned his lesson.”