A STALKER made a woman’s life “hell” until she had to flee York to set up home 150 miles away, the city’s crown court heard.

Nathan Mark Bourke threatened to kill her, got into her bedroom at night and jumped out on her from behind parked cars until she was too frightened to go to the shops, said Matthew Collins, prosecuting.

He made so many unfounded allegations about her to social services and about her relatives to police that her housing association landlord started eviction proceedings against her.

These were halted when the association was told about the harassment.

Despite being given bail conditions by police and magistrates not to contact her or go to her home, Bourke continued to harass her sending at times 30 or 40 text and phone calls a day.

On one occasion, when he had been arrested for breaching his bail by contacting her, he phoned her from the police station, claiming to a sergeant he was ringing someone called “Daniel”.

The six-month campaign included setting fire to a car he believed belonged to a man he wrongly thought was her new boyfriend. The car actually belonged to a neighbour.

When the victim moved to the West Midlands to get away from Bourke, he continued to harass her with texts and phone calls.

“This man is completely obsessed with this woman, making her life hell,” Judge Peter Kelson QC said. “It is clear this is stalking of a very serious sort, persistent, with many, many aggravating features.”

He said Bourke was “fixated” on the woman and had risked causing an explosion by setting fire to the car in a “revenge” attack.

He jailed Bourke for three years.

Bourke, 26, of Rowntree Avenue, Clifton, pleaded guilty to stalking the woman and arson on the day he was due to stand trial.

For him, Sean Smith handed in references and disputed the effect upon the victim.

Mr Collins said the woman had been in a “volatile” relationship with Bourke which broke up finally in July 2018.