Eddie Redmayne stalker sent love letters to star in five-year harassment campaign
'The safety of my family is everything to me and with her behaviour we can't feel safe,' he wrote in a statement read to court
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Your support makes all the difference.A woman has admitted to bombarding actor Eddie Redmayne with love letters and loitering outside his London home, making him fear for his family's safety.
Gaby Stieger, 49, also repeatedly stalked him at premieres and on film sets, in a five-year span of harassment first sparked when she saw him perform at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden, where he played the lead in Shakespeare's Richard II.
A year later, she began visiting the set of The Theory of Everything, attempting to get Redmayne to pose in a photo with her, while also following him and his wife, Hannah Bagshawe, to a carol service at Eton College in December 2013.
Stieger, who is a German translator with two teenage daughters living in Germany, began sitting in a park opposite Redmayne's house. She also followed him to his local Tube station and on one occasion asked him for a hug.
In August, she approached him once more outside of his house, while he was with his baby daughter, and attempted to touch his arm. Redmayne also spotted her in the crowd at the Leicester Square premiere of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them last year.
Furthermore, she sent Redmayne letters "expressing admiration and love", prosecutor Sara Ashkboos stated; adding, "She directly states she is in love with the complainant and asked him to reply." In one letter, she wrote: "I know things about you."
Stieger pleaded guilty to stalking at Camberwell Green Magistrates' Court on Wednesday. In a statement read to the court, Redmayne wrote of the distress her actions had caused him and his family.
"I always try to be open and friendly as support (from fans) is what gives me a career," he stated. "I deeply regret having met Gaby Stieger - she harassed myself and my family intermittently over five years, leaving us distressed, unsafe and deeply unsettled."
He added that she would appear at this house "out of nowhere - observing me and my family without us knowing". When she spoke of his wife, he said that her face would "contort with rage".
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"The safety of my family is everything to me and with her behaviour we can't feel safe," he wrote. Stieger's harassment caused enough concern that he contacted a solicitor and repeatedly told her to leave him and his family alone.
Stieger, of Colindale, north London, was released on conditional bail, banning her from contacting Redmayne or going to Southwark, and is due to be sentenced on Thursday afternoon.
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