VICTIM BACKS OUR CAMPAIGN Stalker had my face on his T-shirt KIND CHLOE’S SIX YEARS OF HELL

A WOMAN who felt sorry for a pub loner was rewarded by six years of nightmare stalking.

Obsessed Anthony Mantova was so twisted he even wore a T-shirt with a picture of the face of his victim – Chloe Hopkins.

After years of fear and misery Chloe, 26, suffers from posttraumatic stress.

Now she is backing the Sunday People’s campaign for a national register for persistent stalkers.

Mantova, 41, has been jailed three times for breaching restraining orders.

Flashed

Chloe said: “Prison didn’t stop him. After being jailed twice he was walking around wearing a T-shirt with my face on, telling people I am a horrible bitch. I sobbed, sick to my core.

“Wherever I turned he seemed to be there. I was gripped with fear. I felt so alone.”

Chloe’s hell began in 2010 after she won a beauty contest to become Miss Prestatyn – her home town in Denbighshire – and was asked to switch on the Christmas lights there.

Her career as a singer was taking off and she signed a record deal with Universal.

One evening she introduced herself to a man alone in a pub and wished him a Merry Christmas.

It was the worst thing she could have done. Mantova sent her a Facebook request, followed by a message saying her tiara and sash “would look good on his bedroom floor”.

He turned up at her public engagements and rang her to “breathe heavily” on the phone.

In early 2011 he flashed his chest to her in a pub revealing a tattoo of her name.

She said: “It really disturbed me. I told him it had to stop. He stormed off.”

Multiple sclerosis sufferer Mantova started a Facebook petition calling for Chloe to lose her title, accusing her of being prejudiced against disabled people. Chloe told her parents she was being stalked. A police harassment warning was served on Mantova but he carried on sending messages and loitering outside her home. In July 2012 Prestatyn magistrates found him guilty of harassment. He was jailed for 18 weeks

and given an indefinite restraining order against Chloe. She began treatment for PTSD after suffering anxiety attacks and developing bulimia. By that November she had lost 3½ stone and had to put her music career on hold.

Mantova breached his order shortly after being released, by following Chloe and harassing her online. He was jailed for another 28 days.

She moved to London but Mantova persisted and she reported him for wearing the shirt and abusing her online.

Chloe said: “It felt never ending.”

In June 2016 Mantova denied a third breach but was convicted at Caernarfon crown court and jailed for 12 months. He was out that December. Chloe said: “Considering the years of hell I went through and how he mocked the justice system, it’s an insult.”

She has spoken at schools and works with Paladin National Stalking Advocacy Service.

Chloe, who has an album out called Once Upon a Time, said: “A register could have helped me years before this man tore my life apart. I am desperate to prevent this happening to anyone else and completely back the Sunday People’s campaign.”

Laura Richards, of Paladin, said: “Restraining orders do not protect victims from stalkers. Stalking is about fixation and obsession. Orders make the professional feel like they are doing something but although they carry a five-year sentence, breaches are rarely enforced. “