Celebrity stalking hell

ollywood star H Gwyneth Paltrow and The One Show presenter Alex Jones revealed the dark side of fame last week during court hearings to testify against stalkers who have harassed them for years.

Gwyneth told an LA court she feared for her family’s safety after obsessed fan Dante Soiu hounded her for 17 years with letters – which she described as “religious to pornographic to threatening” – and packages containing sex toys. This case focuses on 66 messages he sent between 2009 and 2015. Soiu previously appeared in court in 2000 over messages he sent the Oscar winner, and was sent to a psychiatric institution for three years. He was rearrested last year.

Gwyneth, 43, wept during her three-hour testimony and described Soiu’s stalking as “a long and traumatic experience.”

Meanwhile, in a London court hearing, Alex, 38, was said to be “nervous, anxious and vulnerable” when homeless fan Shane Goldsmith sent her sexually explicit Tweets and repeatedly abused her colleagues when he turned up at the One Show studios. Goldsmith harassed Alex between April 2014 and September last year. The charges were dropped after he agreed to accept a restraining order banning him from contacting Alex and her family.

DEATH THREATS

Gwyneth and Alex are just the latest in a long line of stars who’ve been forced to take legal action against dangerous fans.

In 2014, Sandra Bullock frantically called the police when a stalker appeared at her bedroom door in the night. Intruder Joshua Corbett had scaled the barbed wire around her LA mansion, carrying notes saying the actress “belongs to me.” Police found the stalker had been prowling

Sandra’s house for five hours, and had a stash of guns at home.

The same year, homeless fan Kevin Mcglynn hand-delivered notes to Rihanna’s New York home. The judge described the incident as “a tragedy waiting to happen” and detained him in a secure psychiatric hospital.

Countdown presenter Rachel Riley opened up about death threats she was sent during an eight-month online campaign. She was hounded with over 500 messages from paranoid schizophrenic Andrew Wells, saying “I hope you die now.” In 2014, he was sectioned in a secure psychiatric unit and banned from contacting her.

At the time of going to press, Dante Soiu had pleaded not guilty to one count of stalking. The case continues.