The Crown star Claire Foy was allegedly stalked by a man who sent emails about her being raped before repeatedly ringing her doorbell, a court has heard.
Jason Penrose, 38, is said to have sent the British actor’s publicist, Emma Jackson, explicit emails about “Foy being raped, whoring herself out and wanting her to be his girlfriend”, according to court papers.
In another email, he allegedly wrote: “I’m sorry I think Claire[’s] policy should be not talking about any personal stuff in media and only creative business.”
Foy, 37, who played the Queen in the first two series of the hit Netflix show, was allegedly targeted by Penrose in November and December last year.
Ms Jackson forwarded the emails to Ms Foy’s agent, who had also received messages but had blocked the account.
On 17 December last year, Ms Foy “called the police to report that Jason Penrose was outside her residence ringing on her doorbell constantly”, court papers say.
Kiera Oluwunmi was at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court in London on Monday on behalf of the Metropolitan Police to apply for an interim stalking protection order (SPO) against Penrose.
Police can apply at the magistrates’ court for a civil SPO to block alleged stalkers from contacting or approaching their alleged victims while a criminal investigation into their behaviour continues.
Chairman of the bench Amanda Gibbon granted a temporary SPO, with conditions preventing Penrose from contacting Ms Foy or Ms Jackson, as well as him attending their homes, workplaces or anywhere they reasonably expect they would be.
Any breach of the order, which will remain in place until a hearing for a full order on 30 June, can be prosecuted as a criminal offence.
Ms Gibbon said: “Bearing in mind the effects on the victims in this case and the extent to which the activity escalated, from a series of emails with particularly explicit content to a personal visit and staying in the area where one of the victims lives, and the effect this has had on the victims and their lifestyle, we consider it is appropriate to make the order.”
The court heard Penrose, whose address on court files is a hotel in Paddington, west London, had been sectioned and was not expected to attend.
He later arrived and the terms of the order were explained to him outside court.
Ms Foy, who has won a Golden Globe, two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, starred in Steven Soderbergh’s psychological thriller Unsane, and played Neil Armstrong’s first wife Janet Shearon in the biopic of the astronaut, First Man.
Additional reporting by Press Association
