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An obsessed stalker who hounded her Irish ex in a decade-long “living nightmare” was jailed for four years on Thursday.

Lina Tantash, 43, had a four-week fling with 50-year-old film-maker Jarlath Rice after they met in Dublin in 2007 – but she was unable to accept it had ended.

Trinity College project manager Tantash’s “sustained and vicious” stalking crusade included:

Bombarding Mr Rice, his family and friends with more than 20,000 emails, texts and phone calls

Insisting he had broken a “love contract” to marry her within a year

Following him to England in 2015 after he fled Ireland to escape her

Hiring a private detective and offering €1,700 to work colleagues in Brighton for his details, and

Hacking his voicemails and sending hundreds of euro worth of food orders to his place of work.

Tantash broke down in Lewes Crown Court as details emerged about how she bombarded Mr Rice and his loved ones.

Judge Stephen Lennard, who described the Jordanian national as “delusional”, added: “You were never prepared to accept it was over.

“You entered into a sustained and vicious campaign of stalking which lasted for 10 years.”

During the trial, details emerged of the bizarre “love contract” with 40 clauses including demands Mr Rice spend three nights a week with her, talk on the phone for 20 minutes daily – and marry her within a year.

Tantash had also demanded her victim pay back €55,000 she claimed she had given him.

She had studied in the US before going to Dublin where she met Mr Rice at an Easter brunch.

(Image: EDDIE MITCHELL)

He was later forced to move to Brighton where he worked as a teacher at a college in order to get away from her.

But, two weeks after his name appeared on their website, Tantash moved to Croydon, Surrey, and the stalking resumed and escalated.

She also made hundreds of abusive calls and sent abusive messages to his work colleague and friend Sarah Bolland who she picked at random, the court heard.

The accused also created new email accounts each time she was blocked.

At the end of the trial earlier this year, District Judge Amanda Kelly said Tantash had become utterly obsessed with Mr Rice and her behaviour “became a living nightmare for him”.

She was convicted of stalking Mr Rice and Sarah Bolland from July 2015 until her arrest in February this year.

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Tantash was born in Jordan but her family lived in Kuwait until it was invaded by Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi army.

Felicity Lineham of the Crown Prosecution Service, said the “orchestrated campaign” had a “massive impact on the lives of her victims”.

Tantash, who had offered to leave Britain, was sentenced to four years each for stalking Mr Rice and Ms Bolland to be served concurrently.

She will spend at least two years in custody and Judge Lennard also granted comprehensive restraining orders.