Stalker who harassed Ipswich woman jailed for 40 months

Mark Wiggett, 37, of Penfold Road, Clacton-on-Sea, appeared at Ipswich Crown Court via prison video link on Tuesday after admitting stalking the woman.

Mark Wiggett, 37, of Penfold Road, Clacton-on-Sea was jailed for 40 months (Image: Suffolk Police)

The defendant was in a short relationship which the victim described as “toxic”, and she ended it.

Judge Martyn Levett said that despite the woman making it clear she did not want any further contact, Wiggett continued to send her emails “using every trick in the book to cause her as much distress as possible”.

Wiggett sent malicious emails to the care home where the victim worked pretending to come from concerned relatives of those in care, alleging she smelt of cannabis.

This caused her to buy a drug test kit, to prove the allegations were false.

The woman did not realise it was Wiggett at the time and wrote in an impact statement: “I kept thinking why the person was trying to do this and why they were trying to ruin my life; I was worried that I would lose my job, and I would not be able to feed my daughter."

She added: “Then to top it off, I then received a call from the NSPCC, they informed me they had a report that my daughter was malnourished and being neglected, the report also claimed that I was sex worker.”

Judge Martyn Levett added: “You have a nasty vindictive streak in your character demonstrated by this persistent and prolonged conduct over two years and in a letter written to me you said: “Not many people can understand my behaviour.

"“My behaviour was not normal, I should've been repulsed by her for what she had put me through, but the complete opposite happened. I became infatuated with her, and I became addicted to her attention.” 

Wiggett has eight other convictions involving harassment stretching back to 2014 and as he was sentenced, he had his head in his hands.

On top of the jail term the defendant was also excluded from certain areas of Ipswich.