Mother-of-three who was terrorised by a stalker for two years recalls the moment she discovered her own HUSBAND was behind the ordeal that almost drove her to suicide

A woman who was subjected to a stalking ordeal that almost drove her to suicide has spoken for the first time of her horror at learning the culprit was her own husband.

Paul Playle, from Bexhill, East Sussex, impersonated an old boyfriend of his wife of 27 years, Amanda, by setting up fake email and Facebook accounts and bombarding her with messages purporting to be from her ex, Anthony Reynolds.

Playle, 43, spent two years sending sinister messages to his wife - all the while playing the role of a supportive husband, 'comforting' her through her ordeal.

The mother-of-three, who said she became a recluse as a result of her terrifying experience, said of finding out who was behind it: 'I just didn’t believe it, I didn’t want to believe it. I was adamant to the police that they had this wrong.

'He was my rock… I always said to people this stalker knew my thoughts and inner feelings... but actually he was sat right beside me.'

Playle, who also left Amanda in £80,000 worth of debt and facing the repossession of the family home, was sentenced in January to three-and-a-half-years in prison after a jury took less than 30 minutes to convict him of stalking and coercive and controlling behaviour.

Amanda, who said Playle writes letters to their children but is not allowed to see them, refuses to admit his guilt.

'It's heart-breaking because the girls want to see their dad but they’re not allowed to. He still denies all knowledge, like it’s not him,' she said.

Amanda also revealed the financial mess her husband left her in after he was declared bankrupt, with the family home in the process of being repossessed.

'We have to leave home and start again,' she added.

'It is very hard to trust people… I always think people have an ulterior motive.'

'To think it was the one person I believed I could always trust. I no longer trust anyone anymore.'

Prosecutor Gareth Burrows described the lengths Playle went to to humiliate and control his wife while comforting her as a 'worrying and significant feature' of his offending.

In the messages, sent between December 2015 and June 2017, Playle would question her about previous sexual encounters and called her a 'slag'.

There were days when the messages were 'excessive' and he would also contact her mother, father and work colleagues as well as hacking into her own accounts to send similar messages.

He also set up other accounts pretending to be a girlfriend and friend of Mr Reynolds.

In one message, he said: 'Nice handbag, do you want to meet in Starbucks for a coffee?' when she was out shopping and holding a new bag, or made comments about being able to see her jogging.

He even hid her passport to try to stop her going on holiday with friends.

Police caught him after the stalker sent an image of the entrance to Gatwick Airport to Mrs Playle.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5467647/Woman-stalked-discovered-husband-entire-time.html

Bloody weirdo!

Sounds suspiciously like a form of Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

US National Library of Medicine wrote:
Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a mental illness and a form of child abuse. The caretaker of a child, most often a mother, either makes up fake symptoms or causes real symptoms to make it look like the child is sick.
https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001555.htm

Only, in this case, its not illness, but protection ('comforting' her through her ordeal...), and the roles become confused, whereby it is the father/husband trying to find meaning--eg, the caregiver role--by helping the wife?

DK....it's such a bizarre disorder.

Wow what a low life is he, terrorising his own wife.

I hope she's divorcing him.

I thought of Munchasuens too.

That is one sick human being. I bet it won’t be the last time he does something like this either.

Nutter.