The boyfriend of Holby City actress Rosie Marcel has said that he does not want to talk about the stalker hell the couple went through.
Ben Stacey, who runs The Lifestyle Studios, in Berkhamsted, started a romance with the star and was in a relationship with her during the time Sarah Rumbelow was sending the BBC star messages that said she would be killed and raped.
The 21-year-old, of Foxborough Gardens, Brockley, London, had pleaded guilty in May to putting a person in fear of violence by harassment and was jailed for two and half years at St Albans Crown Court on Friday, October 5.
Mr Stacey has refused to comment about it but back in June he was happy to reveal to The Gazette that he met Miss Marcel last year when he became her personal trainer and then started dating her in November before moving into her St Albans home by the spring.
While love blossomed between the 29-year-old fitness expert and the 35-year-old soap star, Miss Rumbelow’s obsession with Miss Marcel, who plays surgeon Jac Naylor in the hit BBC drama series, took a sinister turn.
Miss Rumbelow set up bogus addresses to cover her tracks and between January 1, 2011 and last autumn sent the vile messages to the actress. She was eventually arrested by Hertfordshire Police officers last October.
Judge Plumstead said “This is a disturbed person’s crime, but it can’t be said she is free of blame.”
Passing sentence he told Miss Rumbelow: “I don’t doubt that you are a young woman who has significant difficulties.”
Rosie Marcel, who divorced Scott Bunce last year, was in court for the sentence.
As she left with a friend, she said: “It was a just sentence. Now I just want to get on with my life.”