A STALKER who followed his victim from the Home Counties to North Yorkshire and got into her home has been jailed.

Igor Gorbochov's actions terrified the woman so much she prefers to stay with friend rather than go home, York Crown Court heard. 

He started living in a tent to be near her after she had moved to Selby without telling him.

Brooke Morrison said the 41-year-old had been convicted of domestic violence towards the woman and was subject to a restraining order banning him from contacting her.

But he found out where she was, got a job with her employer and regularly turned up at her house drunk.

Despite being arrested for breaking the order and released on bail, police caught him in her house in October last year.

He gave them a false name and claimed to be changing the locks, said Ms Morrison.

“I am very scared to be alone at home and I cannot go to work,” the woman said in a personal statement to the court.

“I stay away from home a lot because I am frightened at home. I stay with friends.”

She also said she had had to see her doctor for depression.

Gorbochov’s barrister Harry Bradford said he wanted to return to Bedfordshire to work with his brother, be self-reliant, and send money home to his family in Latvia.

“He is fully supportive of the (restraining) order remaining in place,” said Mr Bradford.

Judge Simon Hickey told Gorbochov: “You have a poor record of complying with court orders. There is clearly a risk of a danger to the victim in this case.

“In July 2022, you turned up unannounced, and unexpectedly at her address. She wouldn’t let you in and asked you to leave. You started living nearby in a tent in a forest.”

He jailed Gorbochov for 20 months and extended the restraining order by five years.

Gorbochov, of no fixed address, followed proceedings with the help of a Russian interpreter.

He pleaded guilty to stalking and breach of the restraining order and was jailed for 20 months.

Ms Morrison said after Gorbochov took a job at the factory where the woman worked, the woman showed her employer the restraining order and Gorbochov was sacked.

But he stayed in Selby and continued to contact her.

When police arrested Gorbochov on a different matter, he claimed to be living with her at her address and was arrested for breaching the restraining order.

“Even after this arrest, the defendant continued to attend at her address two or three times every week,” said Ms Morrison.

He was remanded after he was arrested in October and has been in prison every since.

Under the order, Gorbochov cannot contact the woman, go to her home or place of work or refer to her in any social media post.