A sick stalker tormented a woman for three years after he was freed from prison for harassing another woman.
Shuaib Muhammad, 31, South Shields, South Tyneside, subjected his latest victim to an “extreme” level of stalking. He continuously crept outside of her home, removed latches from her window locks and got hold of her phone number.
His stalking was compared to scenes from a “Hollywood film” after his behaviour continued to escalate. He caused his victim to sell her flat and take a month off of work due to stress. Muhammad set his sights on his latest victim after he was released from prison.
He was previously jailed for 30 months in 2017 after he got a copy of a customer’s key while working as a plumber. The twisted workman placed sex toys in her home, nicked her underwear and masturbated on her clothes.
Newcastle Crown Court heard how between 2019 and 2022, Muhammad got into his victim’s security system, spray-painted her windows and camera lenses or covered them in plastic bags to obscure the view of what he was doing around her property.
Prosecutor Jolyon Perks told the court: “This conduct persisted over a prolonged period. It involved a high degree of planning, it involved the defendant tracking her from location to location. We submit the conduct was intended to maximise fear or distress.”
Muhammad, of Marshall Wallis Road, admitted stalking involving fear of violence and has today been jailed for five years. Mr Recorder Brian Whitehead issued Muhammad with a lifelong restraining order and said the facts of the case “read something like a Hollywood film”. Recorder Whitehead added: “I have never seen a case, falling short of violence, where this sort of distress and harm is caused, forcing someone essentially to move out of her house, forcing her to sell and then continuing.”
In a victim impact statement, the woman said: “On Boxing Day 2020, white paint was sprayed all over the kitchen window, to cover the camera behind it. I never stayed there again.”
She described her ordeal as a “nightmare” which has completely changed her life and made her paranoid and added: “The psychological toll is beyond imagination. Nobody knows where or how this ends. I can’t work out the pattern or the motive and I fear I never will.” She added: “I don’t know why it ever started.”
The court heard the woman’s nightmare began in he summer of 2019 when she got a note through her door saying someone had a parcel for her and she should ring an enclosed mobile number to collect it, which she ignored.
She then noticed that the window facing into her rear enclosed yard had two of the four latches removed. In February 2020, she let her dog out and the pet disturbed a male, who ran off. In July 2020 another two latches were removed from her window. In July 2020, the victim was in bed, in her ground floor bedroom with the window slightly open. Mr Perks continued: “She saw a male, this defendant, stood outside her window. He was reaching in through the partially open window.”
Three weeks later a neighbour told the woman he had noticed a “peeping Tom” looking through her window at night. In November 2020, the woman let her dog out and saw a male in her yard, standing next to her bedroom window. The court heard due to what was happening, the victim moved in with her mum while she had security cameras installed at her flat. But on Boxing Day 2020 she received a notification from her security camera so a family member went to check the flat.
Mr Perks said: “He found the window which gave the camera access to the rear yard had been painted white. This was too much for her. She took a month off work due to stress.” The woman had to sell her flat in January 2021. That same month her car was parked at a relative’s home in Boldon and a note appeared on the windscreen from someone apologising for scratching it and asking her to call a mobile number, which she did not.
The court heard the woman moved into her new home, a mile away from her old flat. In October 2021, the victim’s doorbell camera was activated and showed a male spray painting the lens and her CCTV at the back of the property with black paint, which cost her £500 to replace.
A month later, her cameras showed a man approach her door then crouch down and look into her spare bedroom window for around two minutes before someone put a light on and he ran off. The court heard the woman had a year of peace from November 2021, but in November 2022 she received a notification on her phone from her video doorbell which showed a male in dark clothing walking down the steps towards her home towards her front door.
She called 999 as she watched the stranger tamper with her security light then run off. About a minute later, he returned and stared in through her window for around two minutes. Later that same evening she received several calls to her mobile phone, from a withheld number and could hear just breathing.
And at around 11pm that same night her CCTV showed a male outside her home, wearing blue surgical gloves and carrying a torch. He approached her front door and put a black bin liner over her security camera before leaving. Muhammad was linked to the offences after his offender manager recognised him from footage obtained by the police. Brian Hegarty, defending, said: “He is willing to engage with professional help. He knows he needs professional help.”
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