WATCHIN YOU
Veronika Janoscikova, 36, from Salford, hoped her ex would move on with his life, but he had other plans…
Finding myself giving in, I finally agreed to go on a date with the handsome guy from work. Tom, 36, and I got to know each other when I worked at a recruitment company and I interviewed him for a lorry driver position we were hiring for.
He’d got the job and kept pestering me to meet up, but I refused until he’d moved on to a different company.
After taking him up on his offer, we met for lunch and the conversation flowed freely.
Tom was just as cheeky and charming as I remembered.
We quickly became a couple and I introduced him to my son from a previous relationship, Adam, 15.
The pair of them getting on was a deal-breaker, and I needn’t have worried about it as they hit it off straight away.
Within two months, Tom moved from Wrexham, North Wales, into our home in Salford, Greater Manchester.
At first things were great – he was funny and thoughtful.
We had one hiccup after a silly row when Tom stormed out and disappeared for the whole weekend.
I thought he was gone for good, but when he came back in floods of tears, begging for forgiveness and promising it would never happen again,
I believed him and welcomed him with open arms.
Then, in December 2017, I got home from work and found Tom in the kitchen.
Before I could realise what he was up to, he dropped to one knee.
‘I could have done this at a restaurant or on holiday,’ he said with a smile. ‘But I wanted to do it here at our home.’
Then, he pulled out a sparkling engagement ring.
‘Veronika, will you marry me?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ I squealed, jumping into his arms.
Tom told me how he’d asked Adam’s permission before popping the question and the three of us celebrated together.
Tom vowed to be there for us both and to step in as the father figure Adam needed.
I was blissfully happy, but it wasn’t long before the cracks in our relationship began to show and Tom became moody and jealous.
If I was at work and called Adam – before ringing Tom – he would snap and ask why I hadn’t phoned him first.
‘My son is my priority,’ I reminded him, but he didn’t like it and would get green-eyed.
He’d take it out on Adam – calling him names and nastily saying; ‘Like mother, like son’.
Tom also didn’t like me talking to other men.
One evening, when he got home from work, he found me in the garden chatting to a male neighbour over the fence.
Bounding over, Tom demanded to know what was going on.
Mortified, we’d only been making small talk – but I quickly hurried inside the house to stop Tom making even more of a scene. The final straw came when Tom instructed Adam to go and take a shower.
In a strop, when he hadn’t gone to the bathroom as soon as he demanded, Tom unplugged the internet to spite Adam. Turning it back on, I told Tom; ‘He’s old enough to decide when to shower himself. You don’t need to baby him.’ But it didn’t go down well. ‘Don’t undermine me,’ he yelled. I knew then I was done.
I called time on our relationship in March 2018.
Tom didn’t take the breakup well, but I hoped he’d move on and that he’d be out of my life for good.
I wanted to speak to his parents to understand where his erratic behaviour came from.
I went over to talk, but when Tom found out I’d been there he came over and went berserk.
Terrified, I called the police on him.
A non-molestation order was placed on Tom by a judge in June.
But in July, I decided to go to a charity boxing match in Stoke with some former colleagues.
As I hadn’t seen them in a few years, I booked a hotel to stay over and make a night of it.
Only, not long after I arrived, Adam forwarded me a text he’d received from an anonymous number. Looks like you might be
He was moody and jealous
getting another dad soon. Mum’s enjoying spending the night with another guy. Meet men for sex and hope for a relationship, leave teenage son at home, just the same old script for the last few years. Police on the way, it read.
Worried, I raced straight home to check Adam was OK.
I was scared Tom was watching the house.
At 2am, I got emails from an account registered to a man called ‘Jason’, accusing me of being with another man.
How you can fall out of love with someone so soon is unbelievable, obviously your new man has not just happened recently, it’s been going on a while.
That same week I received a text from someone called ‘Kev’ accusing me of infidelity.
It was so creepy that Adam and I changed our numbers and blocked Tom from our phones.
At work, I received a bouquet of flowers from an anonymous admirer – I knew it was Tom,
I lost my job because of him
continuing to mess with me and instantly burst into tears.
I was so distracted at work that I was eventually dismissed and could only apply for short-term jobs for fear of Tom finding out where I would be and continuing to bombard me.
I became so paranoid that I set up CCTV and even changed the locks on my doors at home.
My car was damaged, so I called the police and a switched on officer checked underneath my vehicle.
That’s when I spotted him putting on blue gloves so he could remove something.
‘It’s a tracking device,’ he explained to me.
The contraption had been attached to my car by a magnet.
Police began an investigation and managed to trace the purchase of the device to Tom.
Thomas Forret was quickly arrested and in April pleaded guilty to stalking and breaching a nonmolestation order at Manchester Magistrates’ Court.
He was sentenced at Crown Court on 28 May and handed a 12month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, plus 200 hours of unpaid work and therapy to help him.
But despite the outcome, I still can’t get over what that monster put both me and my son through.
I’m sick with terror at the thought that he’s not gone straight to jail.
He’s broken the non-molestation order – and although he’d be stupid to break the restraining order in place against him, he could easily break that, too.
He’s so intimidating.
When I went to court to hear the sentencing, I was in the same room as him, but I couldn’t look at him – he had that power over me.
I’ve not been able to hold down a steady job since all this began a year ago – in part because I don’t want to be anywhere long-term.
That way, he can’t track me as easily at work.
But now I don’t want to leave the house either.
There are times when I am scared to step outside – even in daylight. I do all of my shopping online so I don’t have to go out.
I honestly feel like I’m back at square one – poor, worried, and everything in arrears.
I’m having difficulty sleeping and eating as I’m constantly anxious and on edge.
I’m constantly checking on Adam when he’s at school, but even his attendance and concentration levels have deteriorated.
This has hit him hard, because Tom was his best friend for a time. Worse than that, I don’t know if I can ever enter a relationship or trust a man again now. Tom said won’t stop until I had nothing. He’s doing everything he can to make that the case.
Tom won’t ever quit this war – not until he’s won.