Coronation Street star Nicola Thorp faces ‘Grim reaper’ stalker in court as he is sentenced over two-years of threats
- Pregnant actress arrived in court this afternoon alongside fiancé Nikesh Patel
Coronation Street star Nicola Thorp will face her ‘Grim reaper’ stalker in court as he is sentenced over two-years of threats.
The pregnant actress, 34, arrived in court this afternoon alongside her fiancé Nikesh Patel.
Ravinderjit Dhillon, 30, called himself the ‘grim reaper’ as he used 25 different identities to target Ms Thorp and made sickening threats to choke and rape her.
He is set to be sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court today after Judge Rosa Dean ordered a psychiatric report.
Ms Thorp will read her victim impact statement to the court in full before Judge Dean passes sentence.
Dhillon began his warped campaign when he sent the 34-year-old an intimate photo of himself in October 2018.
Pregnant actress Nicola Thorp, 34, arrived in court this afternoon alongside her fiancé Nikesh Patel
Ravinderjit Dhillon, 30, called himself the ‘grim reaper’ as he used 25 different identities to target Ms Thorp and made sickening threats to choke and rape her
Ms Thorp will read her victim impact statement to the court in full before Judge Dean passes sentence. Pictured: Thorp and Patel attend dunhill’s pre-BAFTA filmmakers dinner in 2022
Blackpool-born Ms Thorp handed an 89-page document to the Met Police detailing the harassment she suffered at Dhillon’s hands.
READ MORE: Coronation Street star Nicola Thorp’s ‘grim reaper’ stalker will be sentenced in December and actress will read victim impact statement in full detailing her ordeal
She said: ‘I’ve spent most of my adult life fighting for the rights of women and doing so in the public eye has come with some personal cost.
‘I became the target of the exact behaviour I was standing up against.
‘Dhillon became an army of men all wanting to do me harm, threats to rape me, choke me.’
Ms Thorp earlier told the court Dhillon sent her a message on Instagram that said ‘a woman’s place was on her knees’.
‘He told me I was to be put in a headlock and forced into sexual acts and wanted to make my parents watch,’ she said.
‘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.’
Blackpool-born Ms Thorp (pictured) handed an 89-page document to the Met Police detailing the harassment she suffered at Dhillon’s hands
In a prepared statement Dhillon claimed he didn’t know Nicola Thorp or anything about her, but he was convicted of stalking involving fear of violence after a trial in April. Pictured: Nicola Thorp and fiance Nikesh Patel at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court in June
Ms Thorp 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.
READ MORE: Nicola Thorp is pregnant! Coronation Street star and fiancé Nikesh Patel are expecting their first baby together
Dhillon also contacted her on social media claiming one of his friends followed her on to a train ‘and had got so close to her he could smell her’.
Ms Thorp 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.’
Dhillon’s IP address was finally linked by police to the accounts he used to harass Ms Thorp and he was arrested.
She said she did not learn of Dhillon’s true identity until his first court appearance on February 14 last year.
In a prepared statement he claimed he didn’t know Ms Thorp or anything about her, but he was convicted of stalking involving fear of violence after a trial in April.
The maximum penalty for stalking involving fear of violence of violence is ten years’ imprisonment.
Ms Thorp (pictured with fiancé Patel) rose to fame after going public with her complaint against a major accountancy firm who fired the star for refusing to wear heels
The actress 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. Pictured: Ms Thorp announced her engagement to fiancé Patel in January this year
Ms Thorp 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.
The actress 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 Patel.
Ms Thorp 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.’
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