Woman tells of terror at hands of stalker who turned up to meet her with knife and fake gun

A former Selfridges boutique worker today spoke about her terrifying ordeal after a stalker sent her “hundreds” of provocative emails and then turned up to meet her with a knife and fake gun.

Suhayl Ali, 28, began contacting his victim, 26, after recognising her in the Oxford Street department store from selfies on her Instagram account, which has more than 140,000 followers.

After visiting her at work at least three times, he sent her messages saying he wanted her to be his “business partner”, having obtained her email address from her Instagram account.

One message started with the words “Dear love to you”. Another had seven heart emojis at the bottom, with the words: “7 hearts represent my lucky number. I call it robbing the devil.”

After scores of similar emails the victim called police, who stormed a hotel where Ali believed he was meeting her. When officers turned up to the Crowne Plaza near Beaconsfield they found he was armed with a fake gun and knife.

Ali last week pleaded guilty to stalking his victim by continuously emailing her between November 20 and December 9. He admitted possessing an imitation firearm and blade in a public place.

The victim worked in the men’s designer shoes section but has now launched her own clothing business. She spoke to the Standard on condition her real name not be published for fear of reprisals, but posts and blogs under the Instagram handle @dbzdutch.

She said: “He came up to me [at work] and asked me if I was the girl from Instagram and he showed me my page to which I responded, ‘Yes I am.’

“He tried to continue the conversation by saying that he thinks I would be a great addition to his team and that I should work for him. I found this odd but I just looked at him strangely and said sorry I’m not interested. He left the store and I didn’t think much of it.

“However, a week later he came again and wouldn’t stop trying to speak to me. I was really freaked out so I got another staff member to serve him.

"After this I didn’t see him come into the store again. I started to receive about 200 emails a day but I never responded to any.”

The victim claimed Ali sent her a picture of himself outside Selfridges while she was away, saying he was “waiting for her”.

She said: “He told me he got a hotel and gave me the name and room number and said he was waiting for me there. It was at this point that I went to the police because he genuinely wasn’t stopping.

"At first I was quite embarrassed but I’m so glad I went because they did take my case seriously and they sent police officers to the hotel.”

At Uxbridge magistrates’ court Ali, from Oxford, was sentenced to six weeks’ jail, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to complete 160 hours of community service, including 25 days of rehabilitation.

He was fined £300 for possessing the fake gun, £500 for the knife and was ordered to pay £85 costs and a £115 victim surcharge.

He was also given an indefinite restraining order prohibiting him from contacting the woman and visiting Selfridges.

The victim said: “I do wish he went to jail because he could do this to someone else and that person might not be brave enough to go to the police so he could actually end up hurting them.”