Stalker admits following Eddie Redmayne for five years

  • 14/09/2017
Eddie Redmayne
Redmayne said he and his family were 'distressed' by the woman. Photo credit: Getty

A middle-aged German woman has admitted carrying out a five year campaign of harassment against Eddie Redmayne and his wife.

Gaby Stieger, 49, a translator and mother-of-two, confessed in court to stalking the Theory of Everything star, bombarding him with love letters and following him to premieres and film sets.

She also repeatedly loitered outside the Oscar-winning actor's house in Southwark, south London, The Evening Standard reports.

Stieger says she first encountered the 35-year-old after watching him perform in a play at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden in 2012. She then began visiting the film sets he was on, and even followed Redmayne and his wife Hannah to a Christmas carol service at Eton College.

The Standard reports that she can be seen staring at him in a photograph taken by a fan.

In August 2017, Stieger approached Redmayne again outside his house, while he was with his baby daughter, and tried to touch his arm.

In one of her letters she wrote: "I know things about you."

In a statement read to the court in London on Wednesday (local time), Redmayne said he had always tried to be "open and friendly" with fans, as their support "is what gives me a career".

"[But] I deeply regret having met Gaby Stieger - she harassed myself and my family intermittently over five years, leaving us distressed, unsafe and deeply unsettled."

"She would appear outside his house out of nowhere - observing me and my family without us knowing," he added.

"The safety of my family is everything to me and with her behaviour we can't feel safe."

He also said Steiger's face would "contort with rage" when she spoke about his wife. 

Redmayne repeatedly told Stieger to leave him and his family alone and was so worried about the stalking that he contacted a solicitor.

Stieger was released on conditional bail, banning her from contacting Redmayne or going to his area of London, and is due to be sentenced later this week.

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