Kate Brooks, 35, of Disley, near Stockport, was left a ‘broken woman’ after her ordeal
A fitness instructor was forced to flee her home and give up her gym job after her obsessed ex-boyfriend wrongly believed she had cheated on him with a personal trainer.
Kate Brooks, 35, of Disley, near Stockport, was left a ‘broken woman’ after she was hounded by Heath Speakman when he became fixated with false claims she had a relationship with a colleague.
Speakman, 49, who ran a carpet cleaning company, guilt-tripped Miss Brooks with more than 1,000 texts wrongly claiming he had cancer and was about to commit suicide.
He even left a handwritten message on her car windscreen warning her he had been diagnosed with a sexually-transmitted infection.
The father of two also created a fake Instagram accounts to hound Miss Brooks with messages and would use his own social media business page to post offensive messages on Miss Brooks keep fit blog.
One including a message on an article she posted called the ‘naked truth’, commenting: ‘Wouldn’t worry, everyone has seen you naked.’
The victim was so scared of Speakman she had to be given an escort from work by workmates and she moved in with a friend.
Police said he sent a total of 1168 text messages and created nine fake email accounts to harangue Miss Brooks from June to August 2018.
Miss Brooks (pictured, at the gym, left, and right) was so scared of Speakman she had to be given an escort from work by workmates and she moved in with a friend
At Stockport magistrates court she relived her ordeal as Speakman, of St Helens, Merseyside was found guilty of harassment. He failed to appear for the trial and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Miss Brooks, who has since undergone counselling over her ordeal told the hearing: ‘At the time I was so sucked into this toxic and controlling relationship, I was completely lost and a shell of a person. I wasn’t safe in that relationship at all and I know that now.
‘When I came out of that relationship I was completely broken. I was with my sister for six weeks, I fled the house in the final week I left him. I felt like I was being suffocated with all of this contact, it was incessant.
‘I had to leave my job, I didn’t feel safe working at the gym.
‘Then I moved in with my friend but I felt like I was constantly checking number plates and vans.
Heath Speakman (pictured), of St Helens, Merseyside was found guilty of harassment. He failed to show for the trial and a warrant has been issued for his arrest
‘He was following me around in work and I felt there was no way of getting away from him. He knew my routine and I felt my world was so small.’
Miss Brooks said the harassment has ‘affected everything I have ever done’ and said she fears ‘he is still watching from some sort of account.’
She said: ‘I am constantly looking over my shoulder, even now. I fear for other women as well.’
The court heard the pair had dated for three years and lived together in Disley but they split up in 2018 and Speakman began hounding her soon after that.
She said that he accused her of cheating and lying and he was obsessively using social media.
Miss Brooks (pictured) has since undergone counselling over her ordeal
Miss Brooks (pictured) said the harassment has ‘affected everything I have ever done’ and said she fears ‘he is still watching from some sort of account’
Miss Brooks said she was obsessed a person called ‘Tom’ and he was fixated with him, accusing her of cheating with him.
She told the hearing: ‘He was setting up multiple email accounts and he sent me messages saying I owed him money.
‘There were email messages saying he had cancer and that he was going to commit suicide.
‘He was suffocating me and coming from all angles, it was nonstop, multiple times a day, multiple comments over many different channels.
‘I received hundreds of texts, around 50 emails, all of which I still have. They were from a lot of different accounts.
‘I had a blog, which I’ve since deleted and he used his business page to comment on every single thing I posted.
‘Tom was a personal trainer I had sessions with him years ago and he was obsessed with that guy. He thought I had cheated with him. Many arguments were started about this guy.
‘I even received a friend request on Instagram from ‘StretchTomOne’ when Tom had an account called ‘StretchTom’, so I knew Heath had made a fake account.
‘The police did get in touch with Tom and he confirmed it was a fake account and the defendant had mirrored his account, it was the same kind of biography and everything.
‘I wrote a blog post called the naked truth and he commented: ‘Wouldn’t worry, everyone has seen you naked’. My blog was just about exercising and gym.
‘Every single picture I put on that account, he commented on.
‘Work were aware of what was going on. I changed my shift at the gym. I would see his car driving round the the gym and then I would see his car parked next to my car.’
She said one evening she left work she found a note on the windscreen of her car.
It said: ‘Kate, I’m not sure if you’ve seen my email, I think you have but I need to be sure. I have an STI, and what I have is cancer. You need to get a smear test…’
Speakman was arrested in August last year.
PC Tracy Brookes told magistrates: ‘Heath Speakman confirmed emailing her several times using several accounts and when asked why, he said he wanted to make sure she got the message about the STI as he was aware she had blocked him on social media.
‘When asked why he continued to contact her after she blocked him, he said he didn’t know if she was getting the message.’
Magistrates found the case proved in Speakman’s absence.