“The Crown” star Claire Foy was convinced her American stalker was going to kill her and her daughter when he turned up at her UK home, a court has heard.
Jason Penrose, 49, pleaded guilty Wednesday to stalking involving serious alarm or distress — a crime carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, according to London’s Evening Standard.
Before turning up at the star’s home he had already bombarded her publicist with more than 1,000 emails — as well as texts and emails to her sister and ex-boyfriend, the paper said.
“He talked about the victim, Ms. Foy, being raped and wanted her to be his girlfriend,” prosecutor Varinder Hayre told Thames Magistrates’ Court.
The “sustained, unwanted, fixated and obsessive behavior” reached a terrifying peak when the “delusional” stalker turned up at Foy’s home on Dec. 17, the court report said.
He repeatedly rang the doorbell until Foy’s then-6-year-old daughter answered the intercom, the court was told.
“It’s Jason, I’m outside,” Penrose said, which the prosecutor said left the actress “in genuine fear for her safety and terrified and helpless in her own home.”
“Ms. Foy was terrified as she did not know what his intention was. She was in fear for her and her daughter’s lives,” Hayre said.
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“She struggles to sleep and is terrified in her own home. She feels like the freedoms before Mr Penrose contacted her have now gone,” he added.
The actress — who played Queen Elizabeth II in the hit Netflix royal show — wrote a letter to the court detailing the damage, saying she begged friends not to tag her on social media through fears it would help him track her down.
“His relentless attempts to contact me are so traumatic,” she wrote, according to the Standard.
“I feel like there is nothing that would stop him being able to contact me, he has affected every aspect of my life.”
Penrose also admitted two breaches of a stalking protection order for sending another letter and a parcel from the hospital where he was being treated earlier this year, the court heard.
Still, he was released on bail ahead of sentencing on Nov. 28 at a higher court, where he should expect “a lengthy prison sentence,” District Judge William Nelson reportedly warned him.
The US citizen — who only gave the address of the London hospital where he has been treated — was ordered to surrender his passport and not make any contact with Foy.
“I don’t have any interest in doing that,” he insisted from the dock.
