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‘TERRIFIED ME’
I was hounded for years by ‘Grim Reaper’ stalker, Nicola Thorp says as he’s jailed over threats to rape her
Corrie actress recounted her terror ordeal in court - and revealed fear she was being stalked by someone she knew
FORMER Coronation Street star Nicola Thorp today bravely faced a self-styled ‘Grim Reaper’ stalker who threatened to rape her.
Schizophrenic Ravinderjit Dhillon, 30, used 25 different identities to target the actress over a two-year period.
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Nicola, 34, spoke of her terror as her tormentor was jailed for 30 months at East London’s Snaresbrook crown court.
The ex-Corrie star read an emotional impact statement to the court in which she spoke of her paranoia over the identity of her stalker.
Women’s rights activist Nicola said: “I lived in fear that this anonymous man who had hounded me for years was in fact someone I knew.
“If you don't know who the person behind the keyboard is, he becomes everyone you meet and everyone you've ever met.
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“All that time he knew exactly who I was and I knew nothing of him.
“When I was shown a photo of him it meant I had some freedom back, and only the freedom to run away if I saw him in the street.”
Dhillon began his warped campaign in October 2018 when he sent Nicola, 34, an intimate photo of himself.
Blackpool-born Nicola handed an 89-page document to the Met detailing her ordeal and police tracked down Dhillon using his IP address.
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Wearing a white skirt, pink top and matching coat, Nicola told the court how she became terrified when she starred in a play in April last year when she was featured on a poster.
She said: “It was the first time he would know exactly where to find me if he wanted to.
“This was no one off. He was committed and that terrified me.”
Nicola said she became even more fearful when Dhillon was arrested after cops managed to trace his IP address.
“I know that when abusive men are cornered that's when their victims are most at risk,” she said.
Nicol was supported at court today by boyfriend Nikesh Patel and the couple arrived holding hands.
Dhillon, of Feltham, Middlesex, denied but was convicted of stalking Nicola involving fear of violence after a trial at Uxbridge Magistrates' Court in April.
He will serve half of his two-and-a-half year sentence but was also placed on indefinite restraining order not to approach Nicola.
Sentencing Dhillon, Judge Rosa Dean said: 'Over a period of two years you stalked Nicola Thorp between 2018 and 2020.
'You were finally arrested in December 2021. The investigation took some time and length, which highlights the difficulty of bringing perpetrators of this type to justice.”
The judge went on: “Nicola Thorp was a total stranger to you. She is well known and she campaign's for women's rights.
“I am quite sure you targeted her because of her celebrity and in part due to her determination to call out abusive and misogynistic behaviour.
“You created numerous accounts on Instagram and Twitter to contact her.
“The messages you sent were deeply offensive and very violent. You threatened to rape her. You told her you were the Grim Reaper.
“You told her you wanted her parents to witness violent sexual assaults on her.
'You contacted her using 25 different identities. You even pretended to be a woman in need of advice after being sexually harassed.
“When you were arrested you told lies. You provided a prepared statement saying that someone stole your phone and that you had no idea who the victim was.
“Ms Thorp lived in fear. Her family bought her a rape alarm.
“No woman should have to live in fear. Ms Thorp was left in constant fear of being attacked over a long period of time.
“That fear was made worse by the fact that she did not know your identity, which left her suspicious and fearful of unknown males.”
Quentin Hunt, defending, told the court that Dhillon suffers from mental health problems.
The lawyer said his client wanted to apologise to Nicola and “understands that anything I say cannot make up for the horrendous experience she suffered at his hands.
“He realises what has come to pass is utterly unacceptable.”
Mr Hunt said Dhillon had good exam grades but suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and was sectioned in 2016.
He said Dhillon’s mother also suffered from psychiatric illness and took her life in 2015 which led to Mr Dhillon's life to effectively spiral out of control and him becoming an alcoholic.
Nicola earlier told the trial how Dhillon sent her a message via Instagram that said ‘a woman’s place was on her knees.’
She went on: “He told me I was to be put in a headlock and forced into sexual acts and wanted to make my parents watch.
“He sent me messages saying, ‘I’m going to be with you forever’, he said, ‘I’m your Grim Reaper’ and in one message alone he said 28 times he ‘wasn’t going to leave me.
“He said alleyways are the perfect place to pick up drunk stupid women and stupid 16-year-old b**ches.'
Nicola said he also masqueraded as a woman called ‘Helena’ asking for her advice as she was being harassed by an employer, so he could interact with her.
Dhillon also contacted her on social media claiming one of his friends followed her onto a train ‘and had got so close to her he could smell her.’
Nicola told the court: “As a freelancer I work in different locations, I would have to inform each site [to keep an eye on] anyone who was asking for me and to keep a look out on my behalf.
“The longevity of his online stalking wore me down. This was no ‘one off’ and that terrified me.”
Prosecutor Sondos Arafa told the court said Dhillon's conduct was “aggravated by the offensive material sent to the victim at the time of the offence and the impact of the offence.
“It is motivated by the hostility against the victim’s sex.”
Nicola rose to fame after going public with her complaint against a major accountancy firm who fired the star for refusing to wear heels.
She later petitioned for a ban on dress codes that force women to wear high heels.
Nicola starred on the long-running ITV soap Coronation Street from 2017 to 2019, playing social worker Nicola Rubinstein, who was the estranged daughter of serial killer Pat Phelan.
She became the first star to get caught in Channel Four's Celebrity Hunted, in aid of Stand Up For Cancer, in April when she was found at a Birmingham hotel after going on the run with Nikesh.
Nicola also shared her stalking ordeal on This Morning when she appeared as a guest panellist.
She said: ‘I've had an online stalker for three years and the police thankfully were able to identify him after a year of investigation.
‘But because of the fact that this man was not verified online, it took them such a long time to find him - and obviously during that time I felt very, very unsafe.
‘If platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter had a verification system, it would have been far easier for the police to identify who this man is.'
Nicola said after the case: “I'm really grateful to the judge and the justice system and I feel like justice has been served in this case.
“But I really feel like there should be an emphasis on making sure that someone like Mr Dhillon gets the kind of mental health support and treatment that he quite clearly needs along with a custodial sentence and an indefinite restraining order which was the main priority for me.
“But I also feel it's really, really important that the police re-visit their policies on victims of stalking, particularly anonymous stalking.
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'I don't think that any person should live in fear, particularly no woman should live in fear that their anonymous stalker could be anybody in their life.
“I feel like victims of stalking, male and female should be given the identity of the person who is making their life a living hell….”
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