An obsessed female football fan has been jailed after leaving sports presenter Laura Woods living in ‘real fear’ during a two-year campaign of harassment.
Harneet Kaur, 25, branded Ms Woods a prostitute in vile messages, targeted her with derogatory comments online and sent a string of unwanted food deliveries to her home.
See Her Threatenings
Kaur, a Liverpool football fan who went by the name ‘Krazy Harns’ online, also threatened to kidnap and kill Ms Woods’ dog and arranged for a Bible and a sexual health testing kit to be sent to her house. The sick campaign, which began in June 2021 and lasted until September 2023, had an ‘enormous and devastating’ effect, according to Ms Woods’ victim impact statement.
The 36-year-old is a presenter for TNT Sports, formerly BT Sports, and travels all over the country for matches and interviews.
Woods Suffers From Anxiety
Prosecutors said Kaur’s actions had left Ms Woods with a ‘real fear’ that the defendant would get close to her while she was working. She suffers from anxiety and has been forced to increase security at home and while at work.
As it is
Kaur, who has autism, is already banned from Liverpool’s Anfield stadium for ticket touting. Her barrister claimed her autism, which led to ‘obsession and compulsion’, was behind her offending.
But judge Talog Davies, who jailed her for 14 months on Friday, said she would have known the impact she was having on Ms Woods.
How The Harassment Started
Antonie Muller, prosecuting at Wolverhampton Crown Court, said Kaur’s campaign started in June 2021, when she used Just Eat to arrange a delivery of Krispy Kreme doughnuts to Ms Woods’ home in London.
He said Ms Woods was initially ‘pleasantly surprised and thought it was a mistake or somebody being nice’, so posted a picture on her Twitter account saying they had ‘made her evening’.
But he added: ‘She did not realise this was to be the start of a campaign against her.’ Ms Woods went on to receive a Just Eat order from Starbucks as well as a chocolate lollipop with a message saying ‘from your secret admirer and I’m not crazy’.
The Obsession Got Darker
The contact then ‘all turned much darker’, Mr Muller said. Among a string of vile messages was one saying Ms Woods was a ‘former prostitute who slept herself into a job’.
In July that year, Kaur’s iPad showed she had visited the London road where Ms Woods lived.
Other messages posted online from an account linked to Kaur called Ms Woods a ‘vile, stuck-up person’.
Although Kaur was arrested on April 8, 2022 and her iPad and phone seized, she continued to leave derogatory comments on Ms Woods’ Wikipedia page and sent her a voice note on Instagram.
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Kaur Won’t Stop
Kaur also sent messages saying Ms Woods was ‘Tory’ and wasn’t welcome in Liverpool ahead of a match she was due to attend. Kaur was arrested again in August 2022 and another iPhone was seized by police, but ‘it didn’t stop her’, Mr Muller said.
In October she posted a message saying ‘wtf is that coke head doing at Anfield’ and posted a picture of Ms Woods’ face on the body of an ‘overweight man’.
Court Ruling
Prosecutors sought to have Kaur banned from every football ground in the country, as well as all of Newcastle – where Ms Woods’ boyfriend Adam Collard lives – and swathes of London.
But the judge said it was too draconian. Instead, he imposed a restraining order, banning her from contacting Ms Woods and 14 other people, and from going within 500m of the presenter’s home.
Argument of The Defense
Balbir Singh, in mitigation, said: ‘This defendant has never met Laura Woods, she has never spoken to her, she has never approached her – this is why this case is very different to many others that come before the courts.’
He said Kaur had a ‘severe degree of autism which debilitated all aspects of her life’ and she wasn’t able to understand the impact on Ms Woods.
Kaur, who lives with her accountant parents in Walsall, admitted stalking at an earlier hearing. Ms Woods declined to comment.
