A STALKING victim told last night how she lived in fear for years as a besotted former neighbour bombarded her with unwanted gifts - and menacing threats.

The woman was forced to move home four times in a desperate bid to escape from loner Andrew Bradley as he mounted a relentless campaign of harassment.

On one of the occasions when the 32-year-old was arrested and questioned by police, he worryingly said: "Stalking . . . ? It's not as if I've raped her yet."

Over a frightening six-year period, he: * posted a note saying: "Boo. Gonna Get Ya. Teeheehee"; * carved "I love [victim's name] in a tree near her home; * threatened to chop off her head with a samurai sword; * left 13 carnations and a teddy bear on her doorstep; * painted a semi-naked portrait of her on his wheelie-bin; * left a balloon and a box of chocolates at her home; and * sent a message saying: "The snakes are in the pit - the viper's now out".

His victim told The Northern Echo: "People think of stalkers as following around celebrities like film or pop stars - but it happens to ordinary people, too."

Bradley began a bizarre campaign to intimidate the former nursery worker after she moved in a few doors down from his home on an estate in Middlesbrough.

Each time she fled to get away from the unwanted attention, he somehow tracked her down to a new address and continued his "petrifying" behaviour.

The 33-year-old revealed how she began to question her own mind, blamed herself for encouraging him even though she had never once spoken to Bradley.

"I thought it might have been my fault for wearing a pair of shorts in the summer," she said. "But doesn't everyone? That's how paranoid I had become."

The woman has received help from a specialist unit of Victim Support, and says without their input and the work of the police, she would be even worse.

She said: "He has left me a different person from the one I used to be, I'm frightened to go out alone and do things I used to take for granted.

"He's followed me around since 2008 and every time I moved, he found me again. And all because he used to see me walking my dog early in the mornings past his home.

"He became fixated with me and made my life into a living hell. In his mind, I think he was having a relationship with me, but I've not once spoken to him.

"He would wait in his garden at 7.30am for me walking my dog and would sometimes stand on the path not speaking or just facing into a bush. It was scary.

"Then he started using his wheelie bin to write strange messages on and leave it in the path for me to see. Once it was lyrics from a weird song.

"Another time it was a painting or a scary face with sharp teeth and the message 'crazy, teeheehee' which was just left in the middle of a public path.

"On another occasion, there was a drawing of a naked woman with a bikini the full length of the bin, with my name in fancy writing. He was actually a fantastic artist.

"He also put up messages to me on A4 size pieces of paper and pinned them to the railings of the local primary school. One of them said: 'If your head jiggles I will cut it off with a samurai sword.

"I had two years of this before I eventually moved off the Park End estate where we lived and moved to a different part of the town to get away from him.

"I thought he was finally gone from my life and then one day I received a letter made from pieces of cut up newspapers. He'd arranged words and letters to say: "Boo, gonna get ya, teeheehee."

"Soon afterward I looked out of the window and saw him sitting on a bench outside my house."

The victim moved twice more but on both occasions Bradley tracked her down, possibly after following her home from visiting a sick relative at a nursing home.

She said: "The police think he saw me and followed me to the bus and got on after me. He's obviously followed me right to my front door, which is terrifying in itself."

Teesside Crown Court heard last week that all Bradley's previous convictions centred on the same blonde woman, and he was made subject of a protection from harassment order.

He was sent to a mental hospital indefinitely to receive treatment for his severe autism and psychotic episodes, and will be freed only after a tribunal - involving a judge - deems that it safe for him to be released.

His victim said afterwards: "I never wanted him to go to prison, even though he made my life hell. I just want him to get the help he clearly needs."

She added: "I had always been frightened but it got to the point where I was terrified when he threatened to rape and murder me. It was petrifying.

"The police have been fantastic and Rachel from the Voice Project has been a life-saver. It feels like I have got a best mate on the other end of the line who knows more than I do, but understands.

"It's a comfort just knowing there is someone there who is close to the case who can help. I still have sleepless nights, though, because one day he'll be out."

Voice Project co-ordinate, Rachel Batey, said: "People do question what is happening to them, and whether it is an offence. It takes a lot for someone to call the police.

"It needs to be out there that it does happen, and it happens to normal people."

Teesside Crown Court heard that Bradley was initially held on remand at Holme House Prison, Stockton, but was moved to the medium-secure unit last month.

His barrister Jonathan Walker said his client faced threats - or perceived he was at risk - from other inmates, which produced "a high level of anxiety".

Adult autism specialist Helen Pearce, a doctor at the hospital, said he was "extremely vulnerable" when he made the switch from jail and has complex problems.

"He has been paranoid of other people's actions and intentions," she said. "He has struggled to know what has happened, or what he believes has happened.

"He appears to be committed to working with staff, but on some occasions he has said he should go back into prison and then into the community."

Judge Peter Bowers told Bradley: "I am only interested in helping you and protecting the public, and protecting you from problems in the future."

His victim said: "He has put a stop on my life for years, but I am not going to let him stop my life or ruin it. I will get over it. I'm determined I will.

"It will take as long as it takes. If I just sat in the house, in a corner just shaking and crying, he has won, he's beat me - and I'm a bad loser."