29-year-old Katie sits in quiet disbelief as she recalls the short time span of her relationship with Craig. Talking to Stacey Dooley in the new BBC One Stalkers documentary airing tonight, she explains that they first met each other at the gym.

“He was a personal trainer at the gym – that’s where we met and we just began talking.

“Then one thing led to another … the relationship was really short.”

The five-month-long relationship was all the proof Katie needed that Craig wasn’t the right partner for her. “From the beginning, he tried to manipulate how I saw other people and then I had a call from one of my friends saying that she had seen him with somebody else the day before so I literally just said to him ‘See you later.’”

Breakups are always hard but the messages quickly went from “I love you Kate”, “You meant everything to me”, “I’m sorry I wasn’t enough” to “Me again”, “Time’s ticking what will happen”, “I’m not pissing around”. 

She explains: “To begin with, he wanted to win me back. He kept turning up here – I’d just come home from work and there’d be a note on my car.

“Then after, I think he just got the message that there was no going back and then he started turning a bit threatening.”

One message turned to 10 then turned to hundreds being sent to Katie every single day. “It was never-ending,” she explains.

Attempting to reason with him, she texted him saying she felt harassed by his actions. “20 minutes after that, he put in a report to the police saying that I was harassing him when it was completely the other way round.” 

Craig reported Katie to the police for assault, and in a bid to frame her, faked personas to send reports into the police. Soon, his texts morphed into voicenotes filled with details of these made up incidents.

Katie plays one for Stacey and Craig can be heard saying: “So you watched me in the gym, did you? Absolute twat. Like I said, if this is you Kate then you’re a fucking idiot.

“It’s going to get you in a lot of trouble.”

Katie never once responded to him, her mother states. From flicking through the messages, it’s clear – although Katie never supplied Craig with any form of response, his slew of hurtful texts just continued.

Even when his phone was seized by the police after being arrested, the surprises didn’t seem to stop. His search history was full of searches around “how to get a black eye without pain” in order to further his claims of Katie assaulting him.

Six months ago, Craig was sentenced to two years in prison for stalking and perverting the course of justice. 

Looking back on pictures of the two of them, Katie admits: “I obviously liked him. Didn’t think it would turn out the way it did.”

Knowing how close of a bond Katie had with her granddad, Craig’s stalking took a sinister turn as he proceeded to walk past her grandparent’s flat multiple times a day.

“In among these emails, I get a picture of my granddad’s flat and [Craig’s] like: ‘You need to be at this place at seven or they’re going to get it and you won’t get a warning.’

“I had no clue what he was capable of.”

Explaining that she didn’t want to scare her granddad or worry him, Katie was left in a “petrified” position. Her mother had to tell Katie’s grandparents what was going on and urged them to check the locks on all their doors. “It was terrible,” she says.

“My dad died five days after the court case. He died of a massive brain haemorrhage that they said was due to his blood pressure.”

The stress of the case has taken a toll on everyone involved but acknowledging the fact that Craig is going to be out of prison soon is a visible sore point for the two women. “He can live his life,” Katie’s mother cries. “Do what he likes and he’s just messed everybody else’s up.” 

Later on in the documentary, we learn that the police have sent a letter to Katie. Although Craig was sentenced to two years in prison, he may be released in two weeks’ time, after serving just one third of his time, they write.

Setting up expensive cameras around the exterior of their home doesn’t necessarily make Katie feel safe but, instead, she explains, “I think if anything happened, there’d be evidence.” The CCTV setup is livestreamed to both her and her mother’s phones but it only offers peace of mind in a small way.

“I just can’t sleep – it doesn’t matter how busy of a day it’s been or how much I’ve done, I just cannot seem to rest,” Katie says.

“I don’t think I’ll ever sleep normally again.” 

Half of convicted stalkers reoffend so in case Craig is released earlier than expected, Katie goes to Gina from Aurora New Dawn, a charity for victims and survivors of domestic abuse, sexual violence, and stalking.

“He didn’t care about the restraining order last time,” Katie explains. “Is he going to care this time? Is he going to be a bit more angry?”

Gina’s advice for Katie focuses on logging any kind of contact, calling the police immediately and keeping an eye on location settings on apps such as Just Eat or Strava. It’s an already all-consuming situation that will only intensify once Craig is released from prison, it seems.

Although we learn that Craig has been turned down for early release from prison, Dooley concludes that: “Katie’s situation illustrates that just because there’s been a conviction and the perpetrator’s been put in prison, that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s it, that’s the end.

“They’re not inside forever, her life is never going to be the same again.”

Stacey Dooley: Stalkers airs on BBC One tonight at 10:35pm. 

Stalking is illegal in Britain and should be reported to the police. For details on how to report a stalker see here.

If you or anyone you know is in immediate danger call 999. Victims of stalking can also get help and support is available through the National Stalking Helpline: 0808 802 0300 or The Suzy Lamplugh Trust. 

Images: BBC