Jail for stalker who stipulated ‘love contract’

A STALKER pestered her former lover for 10 years, claiming he had breached a love contract that stipulated he must call her every evening and live with her three nights a week.

Lina Tantash, 43, embarked on a sinister and sustained campaign against Jarlath Rice, 50, bombarding him with emails and messages demanding he see her, a court heard yesterday.

She contacted his friends, family and work colleagues and hired a private detective to track him down.

Jordanian-born Tantash accused Mr Rice of breaching a 21-clause deal in which she lent him up to £45,000 in return for him admitting they were in a relationship, living with her three days a week, speaking to her for at least 15 minutes every evening and being nice to her.

On being convicted of two counts of stalking, she was imprisoned for four years.

Lewes Crown Court heard that the university-educated project manager met Mr Rice, 50, an Irish filmmaker, when they were working in Dublin in 2007. They had a brief sexual relationship but Mr Rice ended it after a few weeks when Tantash began making more demands of him. To escape her attentions he moved to Brighton in East Sussex where he started to work as a college tutor.

But Tantash, a project manager at Trinity College Dublin, followed him and took up a new role in London.

Her harassment campaign escalated when she wrongly suspected Mr Rice had started a relationship with Sarah Bolland, a work colleague. She bombarded Ms Bolland with abusive phone calls and emails at the college, demanding she stop seeing him.

Tantash was eventually arrested and charged with stalking Mr Rice and Miss Bolland.

In a victim impact statement Mr Rice said he had been left on the brink of suicide.

Handing out a restraining order, Recorder Stephen Lennard told Tantash: “You were never prepared to accept it was over and carried out a sustained and vicious campaign that lasted 10 years. You are a vicious, devious and manipulative woman and should be thoroughly ashamed of what you have done to Mr Rice and Miss Bolland.”