Obsessive stalker, 43, turned ex-boyfriend’s life into a 'living nightmare'

An obsessed interior designer turned her ex-boyfriend’s life into a ‘living nightmare’ after accusing him of breaking a ‘love contract’.

Lina Tantash, 43, embarked on a ‘sinister and sustained’ campaign against Jarlath Rice, bombarding him with messages, ordering hundreds of pounds of pizza to his office and hiring a private detective to probe his life.

She accused Mr Rice of breaching a 21-clause deal in which she loaned him money in return for him providing the intimacy missing from her life.

But Tantash now faces jail after being convicted of stalking at Brighton Magistrates’ Court.

The ‘highly intelligent’ university-educated project manager believed she was locked in a ten-year relationship with the 50-year-old Irish filmmaker. But Mr Rice told police he was desperate when he signed two detailed quasi-legal documents in an attempt to escape her clutches.

The conditions included agreeing to marry her within a year, not to change his phone numbers and to always answer her calls or call her back within 15 minutes.

The extraordinary saga began in 2007 when Tantash and Mr Rice had a fling in Dublin. Over the following years Mr Rice fought to escape her attentions, eventually moving to Brighton to work as a college tutor.

Tantash, then a project manager at prestigious Trinity College Dublin, soon followed, taking up a new role in London.

Her campaign of harassment then stepped up a gear as she suspected Mr Rice was in a new relationship with a colleague.

MAilOnline