A “vicious, manipulative” stalker who turned her ex’s life into a living nightmare has been jailed for four years.
Lewes Crown Court heard how Lina Tantash, 44, pursued a 10-year harassment campaign against ex-lover Jarlath Rice. She had bombarded him with 20,000 abusive texts, hacked his voicemail and sent over £200 worth of pizzas to his work.
In 2007, the pair had a ‘fling’ whilst in Dublin. After a few weeks Tantash insisted Mr Rice that he had to sign an agreement/love contract she had made in exchange for clearing his debts. The agreement stated that he had to marry her within a year, not changing his number and speaking to her over the phone every night.
When he tried to end things in Brighton for a new job in 2015, she followed him and set up 11 email accounts. The addresses included ‘loveyouandmissyousomuch’ and ‘seemefridaynightibegyou’, she would send selfies and messages to Mr Rice non-stop.
In 2017, Mr Rice was working at DV8 (this is a college for vulnerable people and she called up 40 times a day asking for him. During an open evening Tantash opened a just eat account in the college’s name and send £200 worth of pizzas sent there. Mr Rice’s colleague Sarah Borland also got harassed as Tantash thought the pair was romantically involved. Ms Borland received many abusive phone calls and emails containing treats to kill her.
Tantash did not stop there she bombarded Mr Rice’s family with calls to try contact him and told them that Mr Rice owed her 50,000 euros.
In court Mr Rice said: “For over 10 years I’ve had to live with verbal, mental and physical abuse.
“The aggressive and abusive dismantling of my life has left me vulnerable, frightened and exhausted.
“At my worst I have gone through periods of despair with suicide ideation.”
Tantash defended her self and told the court how she came from a good stable family but suffered with a mental condition.
Sentencing her was Recorder Stephan Lennard, he said: You were never prepared to accept it was over and thereafter carried out a sustained and vicious campaign of stalking and harassment that lasted 10 years.
“In my opinion you are vicious, devious and manipulative woman. You should be thoroughly ashamed of what you have done to Mr Rice and Miss Borland.”
