This Hounslow man threatened to throw acid at a woman he harassed for five years

A Hounslow man who waged a "terrifying" campaign of harassment and intimidation against a woman, who he sent a disturing 80-page letter threatening violence against her and her family, has been jailed for six years.

Sirtaj Bhangal, 35, first contacted his victim on social media in 2013, despite the fact they had never met before. The tone of his messages were demeaning and she blocked him from her accounts.

Over the course of the next three years, Bhangal sporadically contacted the victim, whose identity has been protected, but this intensified in 2016 when he sent her a nine-page letter intimating he would be upset if she ignored it.

During the following 12 months the one-sided contact intensified through phone calls and texts and culminated with Bhangal approaching the victim and then hand-delivering another letter to the victim's address in May 2017.

The woman reported Bhangal, of Wraysbury Close, in Hounslow, to police and he was arrested and charged with harassment and stalking - which he was subsequently convicted of.

While on remand in prison waiting the start of his trial, Bhangal used an illegal mobile phone in prison to call the victim and threaten her with violence.

On July 3 this year, the day after Bhangal's trial was due to start, the victim found an 80-page letter at her home.

The contents were extremely disturbing and threatened the victim and her family with extreme violence, including having acid thrown at them. The letter also contained images of people who had been injured with corrosive substances alongside images of the victim taken from social media.

After this was found police searched Bhangal's home and found imitation firearms, imitation grenades, Samurai swords and packaging from acidic substances were recovered.

Bhangal was further charged with being in possessiong of an imitation firearm offence and witness intimidation.

He was jailed for six years on Friday (October 26) after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, two counts of witness intimidation and breach of a restraining order.

Detective Constable Nicola Kerry, from the West Area Command Unit led the investigation, said: "Sirtaj Bhangal launched an unprovoked, sustained campaign of intimidation against his victim which covered a period of five years, including a time when he was on remand in prison.

"The motive for this remains unclear and makes the intensity of his harassment all the more terrifying.

"I would like to praise the victim and her family for supporting this investigation and I can only hope that Bhangal's imprisonment can offer them some small form of comfort."