A stalker who had to be helped by his victim after getting stuck in her curtains, as he climbed in through her window has dodged jail.
Richard Holka, 33, phoned Amy Harland dozens of times and tried climbing through her window after their ‘rocky relationship’ fell apart.
Miss Harland found her former security guard boyfriend halfway through a window at the top of the stairs of her home in Birchington, Kent, in April.
She asked him: ‘What are you doing?’
He replied: ‘Can’t you help me?’
Prosecutor Darren Almeida said: ‘Miss Harland had to assist him because she didn’t want them [her curtains] to rip’.
Canterbury Crown Court heard there was an argument after Holka climbed into Ms Harland’s home, before he stole their dog but later returned it after she called the police.
The father-of-three stalked Miss Harland for two weeks and put her in ‘fear, anguish and distress’ and made her feel like a ‘prisoner in her own home’, the court heard.
He interfered with her ‘enjoyment of life’ on four occasions and was arrested and bailed, the court heard.
But he flouted bail conditions and targeted her a further five times, including phoning her on more than 20 occasions and following her at a supermarket.
Holka, of Birchington, was given a 12-month sentence suspended for two years at Canterbury Crown Court after pleading guilty to stalking involving serious alarm.
Judge Simon Taylor KC said: ‘You set about on a destructive course of conduct against your former partner.’
Holka, who has 36 convictions for 22 previous offences, was supported by his mother in the public gallery as he was ordered to complete a six-month drug rehabilitation course as well as a 12-month probation course.
Phil Rowley, defending, said Holka was ‘remorseful and upset’ over his actions, had ‘developed insight’ into his behaviour and ‘respectful of the existence of a non-molestation order’.
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