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Naomie Harris suffered panic attack and changed locks after being targeted by stalker, court hears

Naomie Harris - Valery Hache/AFP
Naomie Harris - Valery Hache/AFP

Naomie Harris, the James Bond actress, suffered a panic attack after being targeted by a stalker who forced her to change the locks on her home, a court has heard.

Oscar-nominated Ms Harris was left "absolutely petrified" and gasping for breath when a farm labourer, who had inundated her with love letters, turned up at her north London property on Feb 29.

The Miss Moneypenny actress, 44, "felt the blood rush from her" as she feared he was going to "try and come inside the house and hurt her", Wood Green Crown Court heard.

Ms Harris, who was left "shocked and shaking" by the stalking campaign, has now changed the locks, fitted a new security alarm and asks taxi drivers to watch her go into her home before driving off.

Ii Ovisyonairo Ii, 37, from Canterbury, admitted two stalking charges against Ms Harris and her mother and will be sentenced on Friday.

“She doesn’t feel safe when she goes out and struggles to sleep," said prosecutor Philip McGhee.

"She is going to be looking over her shoulder until she knows the defendant can’t hurt her. She is genuinely petrified about what he might do to her and doesn’t feel safe even when she comes home.”

Li initially tried to contact the Bond star through her mother, with whom he booked sessions of Reiki - a Japanese healing therapy.

He tried to get her to discuss her daughter in the hope of being introduced, the court heard.

It emerged that he had been monitoring her media appearances and had hoped that their first encounter would "become their anniversary".

"He believed there was a fated aspect to do with his path crossing with that of Naomie Harris,” said Mr McGhee.

However, when his attempts to contact Ms Harris through her mother failed, he tracked down her address and posted her an 11-page “heavily fragranced” letter on red paper.

The love note, intended to arrive on Valentine's Day, declared that he was “fond of her and she was the one”, the court heard.

Ms Harris with Daniel Craig - Gilbert Bellamy/Reuters
Ms Harris with Daniel Craig - Gilbert Bellamy/Reuters

During the week that followed, more letters littered with “highly sexualised” references arrived. In them, Li vowed to “pursue her until she acknowledged they should be together” and said he would “travel to London to present his soul to her”.

Ms Harris was on the phone to a friend when Li arrived at her home on Feb 29.

“She was incredibly scared and shocked by this - she was absolutely petrified, she says she felt out of breath and felt the blood rush from her," said Mr McGhee.

“Her friend described Harris dropping her voice, whispering in a terrified tone that the man who had been stalking her was at her front door."

Ms Harris, a Cambridge University graduate, will appear alongside Daniel Craig next year in the Bond film No Time To Die.

The child star has appeared in Hollywood films including Miami Vice, Mowgli, 28 Days Later, and the Pirates Of The Caribbean series.

When Li was arrested, police found a dossier on Ms Harris. He had also saved her address into his Sat Nav as 'home'.

Officers discovered letters from other famous women rebuffing his advances.

“There seems to be clear evidence that Mr Ii has had a fixation on other women, glamorous women, women in the media, in the past,” said Judge Noel Lucas QC. “He frightens me.”

Li apologised to Ms Harris in a letter to the court, saying he was “ashamed of his actions” and that he would not repeat them.

The court heard he has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and is “shy and can’t communicate with women”.