A former Trinity employee faces jail time, it has been reported, after embarking “upon a sinister and sustained campaign of stalking behaviour” towards a man she first met while working in College as a project manager.
Lina Tantash, according to the Daily Mail, has been warned by Judge Amanda Kelly at Brighton Magistrates Court that she will likely spend time in prison when she is sentenced next month.
Tantash, according to Kelly, “became utterly obsessed” with Jarlath Rice, an Irish filmmaker. She was convicted of stalking him from July 2015 to February of this year
Tantash embarked on what Kelly called a “sinister and sustained” campaign against Rice, hiring a private detective to watch him and “bombarding him with messages”.
Rice allegedly signed a 21-clause “love contract” with Tantash, and in return she promised to pay his debts, which allegedly totalled more than €50,000.
According to the Daily Mail, the deal’s conditions required Rice to marry Tantash within a year. It also stipulated that Rice would not change his phone number, and would always answer her calls or call her back within 15 minutes.
Tantash, a project manager, allegedly believed she was engaged in a 10-year relationship with Rice, who told police he was desperate when he signed “two detailed quasi-legal documents”.
After Rice moved to Brighton to take up a post as a college tutor, Tantash followed, obtaining a new role in London.
Tantash’s campaign against Rice allegedly stepped up when she suspected he was in a relationship with another woman.
Speaking in her defence, Tantash said she came from a stable, upper middle-class family but said love was missing from her life.
