A ‘despicable’ mother has been jailed for trying to take the blame for her son’s evil stalking campaign that saw his love rival driven to the brink of suicide.
Tonia Bricka, 63, informed police she was the stalker who had harassed a young couple in a year-long campaign of hate, but later admitted it was in fact her son Beaumont Bricka.
Stable hand Beaumont tried to frame his love rival in a warped bid to seduce a doctor’s daughter – with a judge blasting him for ‘dropping poisoned breadcrumbs’ like a ‘malevolent Hansel and Gretel’.
Bricka was condemned as ‘devious and clever’ by a judge for his stalking plot which was so ‘corrosive’ it led to his love rival Tim Dobson writing a suicide note to his parents and being arrested.
As part of his ‘campaign of terror’, Bricka, 26, bombarded Mr Dobson’s then-girlfriend Eve Taylor with ‘the most appalling’ messages from fake accounts he set up telling her to kill herself.
Today at Portsmouth Crown Court, Bricka was branded a ‘coward’ as he was jailed for seven years and eight months alongside his ‘despicable’ mother Mrs Bricka, who was jailed for two years and eight months.
A court heard international showjumping stable hand Bricka was ‘obsessed and fixated’ on Miss Taylor, 24, and successfully forced the make-up artist to break up with plumber Mr Taylor.
Deceptive and manipulative’ stalker Bricka convinced Miss Taylor that innocent Mr Dobson was behind the stream of abuse she received.
Bricka made multiple fake accounts with girls names on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and WhatsApp, set up at least 34 different phone numbers, six email addresses, and used three mobile phones.
Using the accounts, he contacted Miss Taylor and her family and friends to wrongly claim her plumber boyfriend Mr Dobson was cheating on her, telling her ‘can you leave my boyfriend alone you ugly little freak’.
Bricka spread lies about her, claiming she had sexually transmitted diseases, posting adverts claiming she was an escort, and branding her a ‘cheating witch’ and ‘disgusting hoe’.
He even sent himself death threats so it looked like he was also a ‘victim’ so Miss Taylor grew close to him.
Nine other people connected to 24 year old Miss Taylor were targeted – including her father Dr Tim Taylor, an NHS Trust’s medical director who Bricka claimed was a paedophile.
When ‘lonely’ Bricka – who had never had a girlfriend – was finally caught by detectives at home in the West Sussex countryside, his mother Mrs Bricka stepped forward to claim she was in fact the stalker.
However, Portsmouth Crown Court, Hants, was told it was just a false confession made by the 63-year-old to try to shoulder the blame for the year-long campaign from 2019 to 2020.
Following a trial in March this year, jurors convicted Bricka of eight counts of stalking, two counts of sending malicious communications, perverting the course of justice, and Mrs Bricka was convicted of perverting the course of justice.
Jailing Bricka, Judge Richard Shepherd said: ‘You are a coward.
‘Whatever pressure your mother put you under, you have allowed your mother to try to take the blame for your offending.
‘It has all the hallmarks of cowardice.’
Bricka and Mrs Bricka were both given 10 year restraining orders, preventing them from having any contact with the victims.
Bricka, who lived with his mum in a £530,000 cottage in the village of Aldingbourne, West Sussex, met Miss Taylor at the stables by his home.
In a statement read to court today, Miss Taylor said: ‘The act of stalking against me has had a profound and negative impact on me.
‘I have [developed] serious mental health problems such as an eating disorder and depression… I am not expected to be able to return to work for some months.’
Mr Dobson said: ‘I feel like during the last three years my head has been a mess, I have felt worthless.’I have lost trust in women.’
He said he has moved to Australia. ‘I felt like I had to get away, I may apply for a work visa. I’m trying to find a reason to live.’
Miss Taylor’s mother also said she has developed an eating disorder.
