Terrified mum Christine Body has told how a hulking stalker secretly broke into her home more than FIFTEEN times and leered over her and her daughter as they slept.
Next-door neighbour Michael Coombes, 41, crept in after stealing Christine's house key and making a copy. In a year-long stalking campaign, the 19-stone weirdo also stole Christine's jewellery and dirty laundry as bizarre souvenirs.
But he was finally caught when suspicious Christine's boyfriend lay in wait and ambushed him as he sneaked in yet again. Now, as the sick stalker begins a three-year jail sentence, Christine, 39, has spoken about the 12-month ordeal that has left her frightened to live in her home.
The mum of two said: "I have always been a really independent person, but knowing that Coombes has been in my house has really shaken me. Horrible "I feel like he's violated me and I keep getting these horrible images of him rifling through my things. I feel like I have to move to get away from what's happened." Christine noticed Coombes staring at her as soon as she moved into the terrace house in Newmarket, Suffolk, 18 months ago with daughters Amber Rose, 15, and Ferne, 13. He then began using feeble excuses to call round. She said: "He came to borrow a spoonful of coffee and I thought that was odd because there's a shop at the end of the road. Later in the week he returned with a whole jar of coffee with a rose attached to it. "I thought he was harmless so I didn't take it seriously."
But Coombes' developing obsession was about to take a more sinister turn. Showering after a gym session one day, Christine looked through her open bathroom window and saw her neighbour watching hungrily from his bedroom in the rear extension opposite. She said: "I screamed and he backed away from his window. I had no idea how long he'd been watching. At first I was furious and the thought of him leering made me feel sick. "But when I calmed down I convinced myself it could have just been a mistake."
Soon after, Christine began to notice that cash and jewellery were going missing. She said: "There were times I'd walk into my bedroom, and it just didn't feel right. "It felt as though someone had been in there and gone through all of my belongings. Towels I'd folded in the laundry basket would be crumpled or on the floor and other things would be missing. "I felt I was going mad but I couldn't be sure that I hadn't misplaced the things and I didn't want to worry anyone by mentioning it."
Frightening But Christine's suspicions were confirmed in the most frightening way possible when Amber Rose woke up to find their neighbour standing over her bed. Christine said: "Amber Rose was off school sick that day, and she was half-asleep when she saw Coombes creep into her room.
"He moved to her bed and when he saw she was awake, started asking her if she'd lost an iPod. Amber was terrified and screamed for him to get out, until eventually he did. She then called me sobbing and hysterical and told me what had happened, so I called the police and rushed home from work.
"The whole thing was horrifying. Imagine how it felt for a 15-year-old to wake up and see a 19-stone skinhead in her bedroom. "Amber refused to be alone for a long time after that and I had to call the girls' dad a few times to take Ferne because the fear of being in our house made her physically sick." Police found no evidence of an illegal break-in and told Christine she must have left the house unlocked.
But their reassurances did nothing to calm Christine. She said: "Things just kept going missing, especially underwear, and a couple of times I found knickers that I knew hadn't been worn in the laundry basket. "I asked the girls if they'd been messing around in my room but they insisted they hadn't." Spooked by the bizarre movements, Christine decided to set a trap by laying a folded towel in the wash basket before going to work at a property rental company.
To her horror, when she returned she found the towel crumpled among dirty washing. But without proof of a break-in, she knew police would not believe her. So boyfriend Derek Sinfield, 41, offered to lay in wait downstairs. And at 7am the next morning Derek was woken by Coombes standing in the doorway of the front room. He bravely held the burly stalker in a headlock until police arrived.
Christine said: "It was such a relief when I heard he had been caught and that I wasn't going crazy after all. But my blood ran cold when the police told me what he had been doing in our house." Coombes confessed he had pinched a door key that Christine had left for Amber Rose under a wheelie-bin and had made a copy.
Sick He had entered the house 15 times, stealing the family's belongings and watching them in secret. She said: "The police said that Michael was obsessed with me and had used the key to come and go when he pleased. "It makes me sick to think about it.
Things went missing overnight as well so he must have been there when the girls and I were asleep, watching us. "I dread to think what he could have done if he had wanted to." Twisted Coombes admitted four counts of burglary and one of harassment at Ipswich Crown Court in November.
He was jailed for three years and banned from ever contacting Christine again.
Now the distraught mum is hoping to rebuild her life far from the house that is tainted by his intrusions. She said: "I can't help being scared that one day I'll come home and he'll be waiting for me in my garden. "I'm much more paranoid now than I ever was before, and I panic if I think I haven't locked the doors.
"But I'm hoping that if we can move house and start again, eventually things will go back to normal and I'll be able to forget Michael Coombes ever existed."
(EXCLUSIVE PIC: John Clare/NEWSPICS)
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