This is the moment a dangerous fugitive stalker was snared after 48 hours on the run. Edward John Best had travelled from his home in Chicago to Tameside to confront a woman.
The 26-year-old IT worker had been in a three-year online relationship with the woman when she blocked him due to his aggressive manner and strange demands, according to Greater Manchester Police. On one occasion he asked her to leave her phone on so her could listen to her breathing as she slept, said the force.
He spent 12 days in Manchester after catching a flight from the US, spying on her home in Hyde. He eventually broke in but inside was the woman's cousin who had popped round to feed her cat.
For three hours, armed with a hammer, he kept the woman imprisoned in the terraced property by barricading the front door with furniture and locking the back door, said GMP.
He fled when the woman managed to get help, triggering a manhunt. Best took a train to Birmingham after booking a flight to New York but missed the flight by 40 minutes. With GMP's Critical Wanted Unit searching for him, he got on a ferry from Holyhead in North Wales.
But GMP had issued an alert to all forces and when he arrived in Dublin, The Garda refused him entry to Ireland. They then escorted him on a ferry back to Holyhead. Footage shows GMP officers on the boat taking him from Garda officers.
Remaining calm in the footage, Best was handcuffed and put into a GMP vehicle before being taken back to Manchester. He was intercepted just in time as, according to GMP, in his passport was a boarding ticket for a flight from Dublin to New York.
He told investigators that he admitted to making online threats to his former partner but did not have any intent to do anything about it.
He also said to detectives that he did not make the woman aware he was coming to the UK and he acknowledged he had repeatedly harassed and stalked her online.
Best was charged with false imprisonment, aggravated burglary, possession of an offensive weapon and stalking.
He admitted stalking his ex-partner between January and April, false imprisonment, attempted false imprisonment, and possession of an offensive weapon before today being sentenced to seven years for those offences.
He will serve two-thirds of his seven year sentence in jail, before the Parole Board decide whether it is safe to release him. The judge said Best's actions 'impacted on every aspect of her (his ex's) personal existence'.
"You destroyed her online life," she told Best. "You destroyed something she took pleasure in, communicating with friends online. She will never recover from your actions over those two years."
Speaking of her cousin who Best held hostage, the judge added: "She had absolutely no idea what you were capable of. This must have been absolutely terrifying."
She told Best: "I consider you to be a danger to the public, in my view your deportation would be conducive to the public good." Best was also ordered to serve an extra three years on licence for public protection after being classed as a 'dangerous' offender.
After the hearing, Detective Constable Emily Blair, of our Ashton CID, said: "The perverse actions of Edward Best were extremely sinister and frightening for both young women, and while this may be an unusual case it demonstrates our ongoing commitment to tackling violence against women and girls in all its forms. It was clear from Best’s online conversations with his former partner that he was obsessive and aggressive, meaning that when he went to her home address armed with a hammer it was clear that his intentions were malicious with the aim of inflicting physical as well as emotional harm.
“Fortunately for his ex-partner, she was not in that weekend; however, this by no means diminishes how much she has been affected by what could’ve happened, and how horrifying the ordeal was that her cousin was subjected to. Once Best was found by his victim’s friends, his intent was to run away from his crimes and go back to America to avoid the consequences, but our swift response from our specialist team of officers meant we were able to hunt him down and bring him back to Greater Manchester so he can now rightly face justice."
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