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Man obsessed with teenage singer jailed after bombarding her with calls

An obsessed fan of a teenage singer has been jailed after bombarding her with up to 400 phone calls a day.

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Karl Timms ignored a suspended sentence hanging over his head for earlier harassment of the 17-year-old victim from the Black Country.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard how 31-year-old Timms persistently pestered the girl and both her mother and father. His campaign of harassment saw him let down the tyres on their car and have fake deliveries sent to their house.

Mr Paul Reid, prosecuting, said the nuisance calls even continued after they changed their phone number.

The girl - a singer who had uploaded music videos on toYouTube - and her family received more than 400 calls on March 7 and hundreds more four days later, continued Mr Reid.

The identity of the caller's phone was blocked but inquiries revealed it was linked to the defendant, who had Google maps of the area where she lived printed out at his home.

Timms, who was said to have psychiatric problems, had been given a suspended jail sentence for sending disturbing text messages to members of the family. He had also had packages delivered to their home, loitered near the address and let down the tyres on their car between August and September 2012, the court heard.

The defendant continued offending despite being the subject of a restraining order banning him from contacting them.

Mr William Rickarby, defending, called for Timms to be given another suspended prison sentence so that an attempt could be made to rehabilitate him because 'he has to be released at some time.'

The defendant from Droitwich, Worcestershire, admitted two breaches of the restraining order and breaking the terms of his suspended sentence and was jailed for a total of 22 months by Judge Michael Dudley.

The judge who told him: "You have had chances in the past and the sort of offending you are involved in at the moment is seriously debilitating to your victims.

"I do not think you understand how much they suffer. It is terrible harassment during which they were unable to use the phone to make calls out because it was blocked by you. If you carry on like this you are going to be locked up for longer and longer."

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