Man who stalked woman for more than a year after proposal rejection is jailed

‘I cannot understand why this male became so obsessed with me,’ says victim

Rohit Sharma has been jailed for stalking, harassment and failing to appear at court (Metropolitan Police)

A man who proposed to a woman he had just met, before stalking and harassing her for 18 months, has been jailed.

Rohit Sharma, 28, met the victim when she served him in a shop in Wembley, an area of north west London, in November 2017.

Police officers said the pair had a “brief interaction”. Sharma returned to the shop later the same day.

This time he was accompanied with his father and asked the woman, who is in her twenties, to marry him.

The woman, who has not been publicly named, refused and quit her job four days later. But Sharma was able to trace her new workplace.

The 28-year-old also managed to obtain his victim’s phone number and bombarded her with multiple phone, text and social media messages.

Sharma continually watched the woman’s place of work and called her up to 40 times a day.

He contacted the woman from around 15 different phone numbers, which police said made it “nearly impossible” for her to successfully cut off contact.

In February 2018 the victim reported her stalker to the police.

Sharma was issued with a harassment warning, which failed to stop his stalking campaign.

He was formally charged with harassment in July 2018 but continued to pursue his victim after obtaining bail.

Eventually the woman quit her job and left the area in an attempt to escape.

But Sharma then began “systematically” contacting her friends and family members, in an attempt to discover her whereabouts, Scotland Yard said.

Police officers declared Sharma wanted after he failed to attend a court hearing on 5 November 2018, and he was finally arrested in April 2019.

He pleaded guilty to charges of stalking, harassment and failing to appear in court.

A judge sentenced him on Thursday to 29 months in prison.

Sharma received 22 months for stalking, six months for harassment and one month for failing to attend court.

The 28-year-old is an Indian citizen and will be considered for deportation at the end of his prison sentence.

“This whole experience has completely shattered my nerves,” his victim said, in a statement.

“I have gone from being a confident young woman to constantly feeling scared and on edge.

“I have no desire to socialise or meet new people, which has really taken its toll and ruined the university experience I had always envisioned.

“I cannot understand why this male became so obsessed with me.

“It is so unfair and completely undeserved.”

“I just want him to realise what he has done and to know that he cannot do this to me or anyone else.

“I now want to move on knowing that he is locked away and cannot harm or hurt anyone else like he has done to me.”​

DC Nicola Kerry of the Metropolitan Police said the victim had been left “devastated” by Sharma’s actions.

“She has shown immense bravery in reporting him to police and supporting this court case,” she added.

“Sharma was incessant in his pursuit...and [he] would also get friends and relatives to contact her on his behalf.”

Police forces were criticised for their approach to stalking and harassment in a report released last month.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), a police watchdog, found that forces did not investigate stalking and harassment consistently or effectively.

HMICFRS also raised concerns that there was no single definition for stalking adopted by police forces and government departments.