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When Abby Furness booked a holiday to Ibiza, she didn’t think her ‘creepy’ stalker of three years would be following her over there.
Dancer and Only Fans model, Furness, 23, apparently felt like 'a prisoner in her own home' after having to give up her normal day-to-day life because of her obsessive stalker.
She recently told The Sun, “I get ready to go to the gym and psyche myself up, but then can’t face leaving the house. Even going out to meet a friend for a coffee has become a massive deal for me.”
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In 2020, Furness’ nightmare started to become her reality when her stalker Jamie Spears, 34, first came on the scene. He attempted to crash a birthday party at her parent's house.
Following the incident, she was bombarded with messages from the former airport worker. However, he reportedly ignored all her pleas for him to leave her alone.
The obsessive messages quickly became fully-blown stalking when Furness reportedly realised Spears was following her around Brighton. She said he was even showing his face at the nightclubs she formerly performed at.
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“I’ve had to cut right back on nightclub work because my imagination runs riot, ” she said.
“Faces in the crowd on the dance floor morph into Jamie’s. It’s like that Stephen King horror film, The Mist where monsters come out of the fog.”
Later that year, Spears went one step further. He followed Furness and her friends on a girl's holiday to Ibiza. Apparently, he was even seen staring at the group through various club and bar windows.
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In 2021, Spears was finally handed a stalking prevention order. This was after he was discovered mooching around Furness’ garden shed.
However, he went on to breach the prevention twice more which landed him a 14-month jail sentence. In January 2023, Spears was once again sent back to jail. Worryingly for Furness, this was only for 20 weeks.
Upon his release, Spears was fitted with a GPS tracker. This is apparently paired with a device Furness owns. It not only alerts her of his presence, but also the Brighton police.
“The police were amazing,” Furness said. “They were coming to the house literally every day to do welfare checks on me, but it left me with really bad paranoia.”
She says that if Spears does come within 100 metres of her an “alarm goes off, [and the police] come to wherever I am to check up on me.”
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“I do appreciate it, because if something were to happen they can come and help me, but it’s almost like I’m on tag as well.”
“They said they want me to just live my life as usual, and I am trying, but I feel like I’ve got the jail sentence. I’m not really a free person.”
In 2022, Furness told her story to Stacey Dooley, appearing on the second episode of her BBC documentary series Stalkers.
On the show, Furness told Dooley, “[Spears] would be here [at her house] when we woke up and he’d be here when we went to sleep. He was one door away.”
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Stalkers was supposed to break a stalker’s fixation with their victim. However, four months after Furness’ episode aired, Spears allegedly contacted her via a phone call.
You can stream all episodes of Stacey Dooley’s Stalkers via BBC iPlayer.
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/abby_furnessTopics: Stacey Dooley, Real Life, News