Stalker, 58, unleashed campaign of harassment on former British ambassador she met on dating app Bumble after stealing documents ‘relating to Russia’ from his home, court hears

A convicted stalker unleashed a ‘reprehensible’ campaign of harassment on a former ambassador to Belarus after meeting him on a dating website, a court has heard.

Farah Damji, 58, met Nigel Gould-Davies in Bumble in July 2023 and was later diagnosed with stage three breast cancer.

Damji soon began slandering the former diplomat, 59, in ‘defamatory’ emails copying in the Labour MP for Islington Emily Thornberry, staff members at Harvard University and New York Times editorial staff, jurors heard.

Mr Gould Davies is the former British ambassador to Belarus and currently a fellow with the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

Damji stole legally privileged documents relating to Russia from his home and threatened to post them online, Wood Green Crown Court heard.

She appeared in court wearing a patterned red top and black trousers as Christiaan Moll, prosecuting, told how they ‘met online on a dating site called Bumble.

‘They started a relationship soon after meeting each other and thereafter saw each other regularly, usually several times a week.

‘The Crown’s case is that throughout their relationship, Nigel Gould-Davies knew the defendant as Noor Higham.

Farah Damji, 58, (pictured) met Nigel Gould-Davies in Bumble in July 2023 and was later diagnosed with stage three breast cancer 

Damji soon began slandering the former diplomat, 59, in ‘defamatory’ emails copying in the Labour MP for Islington Emily Thornberry, staff members at Harvard University and New York Times editorial staff, jurors heard

‘He only found out her name was Farah Damji when he made enquiries after the relationship ended about the identity of a person who created a fake website in this name with the hosting platform ‘GoDaddy’.

‘In 2023 this defendant set up The View cafe by convincing a wide range of suppliers to give her help and supplies for free as a community interest company, including the use of premises rent free.

‘That organisation links the defendant to a number of false emails and social accounts which we say are part of the evidence in this case.’

Mr Moll described the complainant as an ‘acknowledged expert on Russia’ who was ‘working at the time of these alleged offences as a consultant for the International Institute of Strategic Studies.’

Jurors heard Mr Gould-Davies supported Damji after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

‘Nigel Gould-Davies wanted to support her, she insisted he attended every medical appointment and repeatedly threatened not to to them unless he accompanied her.

‘He consistently accompanied her and on one occasion even changed a flight in order to be available.’

The prosecutor said Damji’s diagnosis ‘doesn’t provide a defence to the reprehensible behaviour that the crown say this defendant engaged in with regards to Nigel Gould-Davies.’

Damji stole legally privileged documents relating to Russia from his home and threatened to post them online, Wood Green Crown Court heard

Damji also used the alias ‘Holly Bright’ in the campaign, jurors heard.

‘She started contacting people at Nigel Gould-Davies’s workplace, making serious and defamatory allegations about him.

‘She also sent a series of highly abusive emails to him directly – some expressing pleasure at the prospect that he would have a nervous breakdown.’

Damji allegedly sent another email to the Ambassador of Kazakhastan in November 2023, referring to him as a ‘severally dysfunctional cretin’.

Mr Moll said she also used the name ‘Claire Simms’ for the purposes of unsettling Mr Gould-Davies.

‘The result was for Mr Gould-Davies very frightening and disorientating, especially when these emails made serious defamatory statements and baseless claims that he physically abused women.’

Damji allegedly sent more emails to Harvard University staff members and editorial staff at the New York Times accusing Mr Gould-Davies of ‘domestic violence and gaslighting.’

All the emails sent by ‘Holly Bright’ and ‘Claire Simms’ were traced to an address associated with The View magazine, set up by Damji.

She even created a spoof Twitter account in the name ‘John Hanigan’ to mock Mr Gould-Davies, the prosecutor said.

Damji also stole a ‘legally privileged document’ from his house, it was said.

‘She left with the document and then sent him a photograph of it threatening to put it on the internet’, Mr Moll said.

‘The pattern was the same as the messages from Noor Higham, Holly Bright, Claire Simms and John Hanigan – they were harassing, abusive and deeply hurtful, followed by apologies, retractions and then further sudden attacks.’

Mr Gould-Davies eventually flew to Berlin ‘to seek temporary refuge’ in early 2024, the court heard.

‘The defendant was keen to ascertain his whereabouts and he continued to receive messages and phone calls.’

He received one email stating: ‘I have people searching for you, we are everywhere, and Holly is in Berlin.’

The prosecutor added: ‘Social media evidence (also) suggests at the end of February 2024 Damji visited a town in southern Spain where Nigel Gould-Davies’ mother lives.’

Jurors were played doorbell camera footage showing a woman allegedly sent by Damji to the former diplomat’s home while the defendant was in Berlin.

‘There is evidence that the defendant committed credit card fraud against the defendant in mid-December 2023, when one of his credit cards and indeed his passport disappeared without explanation, forcing him to cancel plans to visit his mother in Spain and instead spend Christmas with Noor,’ said Mr Moll.

Mr Gould-Davies’ credit card bill showed unexplained transactions totalling £13,621 including several to a company called ‘Flowers for Freedom’.

‘The Twitter and Etsy accounts for these companies have the defendant’s picture on them,’ the prosecutor said.

Damji was eventually arrested on her way to Berlin at Heathrow airport and she was interviewed several times by police on 12 March 2024.

Mr Moll told jurors: ‘When you come to consider all the evidence in this case, we say there is an irresistible inference that Nigel Gould-Davies was the victim of a campaign of stalking orchestrated by this defendant Farah Damji, who – as you will hear – has previous convictions for stalking committed in similar circumstances.’

Damji, of Doughty Street, Clerkenwell, denies denies stalking involving serious alarm and distress, theft and two counts of fraud by false representation.

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