Mum’s stalker hell after neighbour spent three years harrassing her after she refused a date with him
Joshua Bentley posed as Sarah Perrett on social media and falsely posted that she was an escort
A YOUNG mother has spoken out about her paranoia after she was subjected to a vicious three-year smear campaign by an obsessed neighbour who pretended she was his girlfriend.
Sarah Perrett, 26, and her seven-year-old son Harvey had moved into the house in Halifax in West Yorkshire in 2012 but fell victim to Joshua Bentley, 25, when he asked for her phone number.
When she refused to go out with him, Bentley verbally attacked Sarah and made countless false accusations, using Facebook to falsely accuse her father of being a paedophile and her of being in an incestuous relationship with him.
He also pretended to be Sarah on social media, posted a message falsely saying she was an escort and as a result hundreds of men asked for naked pictures.
She was forced to take the case to court and Bentley was convicted of harassment at Bradford Crown Court.
He was given a 15-month suspended sentence.
Sarah said: "Josh's lies made me absolutely sick to my stomach, it's disgraceful that I had to uproot my life and my family just to get away from him.
"My son Harvey would see Josh in the street and he'd be terrified.
"He used to call him 'the bad man over the road'."
The stalking campaign began shortly after Sarah moved into her home and Bentley had sent a friend over to pass on his number to Sarah.
She said: "I was flattered, but not interested in any kind of relationship.
"The same man came back a few times, and eventually I told him the whole thing was getting creepy and that he should stop coming to my house."
That was when Bentley made his first appearance, screaming at Sarah as she opened the door that she didn't need to be so 'stuck-up'.
Sarah said: "I was stunned that he could act so aggressive.
"I didn't even know him, how could he be getting so worked up?
"Harvey was cowering behind me and I was furious that this man had the nerve to come over and scare my child."
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Not long after Sarah began a relationship with her friend and didn't hear anything else from Bentley.
But a year later, when the relationship broke down, he began to take notice again.
On one occasion he knocked at Sarah's door, demanding to know why she's been looking into his bedroom windows.
He warned her that he'd put her windows through if she looked in his again and left.
Sarah tried to avoid him, but she couldn't get away.
Bentley would shout at her as she came back from nights out, calling her a 'slag' and 'prostitute'.
Then one day, his tune changed.
Sarah said: "After a few weeks of harassment, I woke up to a Facebook message from Josh.
"Instead of attacking me, he'd written how much he wanted me to feel loved, said that he knew I will selling my body and taking drugs.
"He'd invented this whole fantasy where I was a prostitute being abused and just waiting for him to come and rescue me."
Sarah told Josh he was mistaken, stunned that anybody could think that about her, and blocked him.
She added: "I had a bad feeling as soon as I blocked him, I knew he wouldn't just back off.
"I was at a friend's house when I received a call from my dad, who was babysitting Harvey.
"He told me that Josh had been to the house looking for me, and when he saw my dad he went crazy, swearing at him and calling him a 'nonce'.
"It was after that he began spreading lies.
"I started to receive messages from strange men asking for sex or nude pictures and then discovered Josh had posted my pictures on a 'buy and sell' website saying I was an escort."
In September 2014, a Facebook group called, 'Halifax against sex offenders' was created in which the page encouraged people to share stories about sex offenders in the area and posted articles about genuine cases of abuse.
But Sarah said: "I had detectives turning up at my doorstep to make sure I was safe and I was so confused.
"They told me that there was a post saying me and my dad were in an incestuous relationship and that he was abusing Harvey.
"My address had also been posted.
"The post was anonymous but I knew it had to be Josh and I told police to investigate him.
"It absolutely broke my heart that he slandered my family like that.
"My dad has never been anything but a good parent and grandparent and to see him attacked so publicly was disgusting.
"He's a lovely respectable man.
"The only consolation was that so many people commented on the post saying it couldn't be true.
"Once police linked the page to Josh, my nightmare began to be over."
In January 2015, Sarah was granted a restraining order, which Josh breached by sending her messages through fake Facebook profiles.
He appeared at Bradford Crown Court in July.
Sarah said: "I am still affected by what happened, just running into town leaves me paranoid and constantly looking over my shoulder.
"I do feel confident though that he'll be put away of he tries anything else.
"I can only hope that this sentence is enough to keep him away."
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