‘Delusional’ stalker ordered to stay away from The Crown star Claire Foy for five years
A "delusional" stalker has been ordered to stay away from The Crown star Claire Foy for five years.
Jason Penrose, 39, is said to have sent the actor thousands of emails and knocked on her door between 2 November and mid-December last year.
Penrose, who gave his address as Highgate Mental Health Centre, was accompanied by NHS workers at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court in London on Friday.
Ms Foy, who played the young Queen in the first two series of the hit Netflix show, had been "deeply frightened" by the experience said Ella Crine, on behalf of the Metropolitan Police.
The force applied for a full stalking protection order (SPO) against Penrose, saying his actions “affected her [Ms Foy’s] life”.
The SPO was granted by District Judge Michael Oliver, who said the order is necessary "due to a delusional belief Mr Penrose had about Ms Foy.”
He said Ms Foy, 38, is “entitled to protection from further acts of stalking”.
On 17 December, Ms Foy called the police to report that Jason Penrose was "outside her residence ringing on her doorbell constantly”, court papers showed.
After an interim SPO was granted in February, Penrose breached the restrictions by sending a letter and parcel later that month, the judge said.
The five-year-order prohibits Penrose from directly or indirectly contacting Ms Foy or her agent Emma Jackson, and going to where they work or live.
There is also an exclusion zone covering all but five districts in the London borough of Camden.
He must also tell police of any device which can access the internet, social media accounts and telephones, allowing officers “reasonable access” to them.
Any breach of the order can be prosecuted as a criminal offence.
Moira McFarlane, defending, had asked for a two-year order, saying: “I see no useful basis for a five-year period.”
It was heard that Penrose has been “deemed fit for release” from the mental health centre.
Ms Foy, who has won a Golden Globe, two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, starred in Steven Soderbergh’s psychological thriller Unsane, and played Neil Armstrong’s wife Janet Shearon in the biopic of the astronaut, First Man.
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