The court heard Matthew Samuel put on a balaclava and turned up at the school attended by his ex’s children
An obsessed stalker bombarded an ex partner with messages, calls and social media posts and told her: “You are mine. You will always be mine.”
Matthew Samuel also turned up at the school the woman’s children attend wearing a balaclava and pretended to be his victim’s cousin in order to call the police about her.
The offending began shortly after the 35-year-old was released from prison having served a sentence for stalking the same woman and making her life a “misery”.
Swansea Crown Court heard Samuel has a history of stalking and harassing former partners. In sending him back to prison, a judge called the defendant “an extremely jealous, very immature man who simply needs to grow up” and who poses a risk to women. Don’t miss a court report by signing up to our crime newsletter here
Sian Cutter, prosecuting, told the court that Samuel and the complainant had been in a relationship for around six months before it ended due to the defendant’s jealousy, and said in October 2024 the defendant was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stalking the woman and was also made subject to a restraining order.
The court heard Samuel was released in March 2025 and “almost immediately” made contact with the woman again – despite the terms of the order – although his ex accepted that she initially did not object to the contact and that on occasions she was the one who contacted the defendant.
The prosecutor said the woman later made it clear to Samuel that she wanted nothing more to do with him, and the defendant responded by bombarding her with messages and calls from withheld numbers, ringing his ex as many as 75 times in a single day.
The court heard Samuel also started messaging his victim on Facebook, created a number of TikTok accounts in different names in order to follow her and message her, called the police pretending to be the woman’s cousin in order to report concerns for her welfare, and turned up at the school her children attended wearing a balaclava.
The prosecutor said during the course of the stalking Samuel made a number of threats towards the woman including telling her he was going to throw a brick through her window and was going to murder her. In one message he told his ex: “You are mine. You will always be mine”.
The court heard that matters were reported to the police in October and the defendant was arrested and questioned, answering “no comment” to all questions asked in interview. Samuel was released on bail on condition that he not contact his ex, but he continued his unwanted communications regardless.
The prosecutor said when the woman changed her phone, the defendant found out what the new number was and continued to call and text from withheld numbers. She said in one of the calls the defendant made to his ex, he told her “there was nothing she could say or do to make him leave her alone”.
The contact continued until Samuel was arrested again in January this year. He again answered “no comment” to all questions asked in interview.
In an impact statement which was read to the court by the prosecution barrister, the victim said she now struggles to sleep, feels she is always being “watched” when she leaves the house but does not feel safe at home, and is on antidepressant medication. She said she had been left feeling “frightened and powerless”.
Matthew Samuel, formerly of Vicarage Road, Morriston, Swansea, but now of no fixed abode, had previously pleaded guilty to stalking involving serious alarm or distress, and to breach of a restraining order when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.
He has 31 previous convictions for 52 offences including stalking, harassment, and breach of restraining orders in relation to two different previous partners. Samuel threatened to pour petrol through the letterbox of one of his ex-partners and to “chop her up and burn her alive”, and he poured petrol over the driveway of a second former-partner and set it alight.
In October 2024 Samuel was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stalking the same victim as the current offending. On that occasion the court heard the defendant had made his ex’s life “a misery” with a campaign of unwanted and threatening calls, texts, and visits to her home.
He bombarded his victim with up to 93 calls a day, threatened to turn up at her children’s play centre and stab himself in front of everyone there, and told her he would “make sure she loses everything” by spreading rumours that she was ill-treating her kids.
David Singh, for Samuel, said pre-sentence and psychiatric reports before the court detailed the defendant’s “difficult background” and the impact that had on his ability to form appropriate relationships.
He said while those matters in no way justified his client’s “inexcusable behaviour” they did provide a context for what happened, though he added it had to be accepted that Samuel had exacerbated the situation through his use of drink and drugs.
The barrister said his client has two young children and realises that he has to grow up otherwise he is going to miss out on meaningful contact with them.
Judge Paul Thomas KC said after being released from prison – and in the face of a restraining order – the defendant bombarded his victim with calls, texts, and social media postings, made a series of threats against her, and had turned up at her children’s school.
The judge told Samuel: “You are an extremely jealous, very immature man who simply needs to grow up. Above that, I think you are potentially a risk to any woman who you are in a relationship with. The court has a duty to protect women. The only way it can do that is to keep you out of the way.”
With a one-quarter discount for his guilty pleas Samuel was sentenced to three years in prison comprising three years for stalking and two years and three months for breach of restraining order to run concurrently. The defendant will serve up to half the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
The court heard the existing restraining order the defendant is subject to will remain in place to 2029.
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