“MY LIFE has been complete hell.”

Those are the words of a Southampton grandmother who was persistently harassed by the husband of a late woman whom she had cared for.

Sally Webb was trailed by widower David Foote who regularly loitered outside her home and workplace tracked her to shops and kept a sinister blow-up doll bearing her image.

And police raiding his city home made the sinister discovery of a blow-up doll with a photograph of her image crudely attached to its face.

Now she reveals the ordeal has left her feeling “imprisoned” in her own home hitting her health and forcing her to change her job and even the family car to avoid detection.

It comes as she insists a district judge should have thrown him in jailed him for for breaching a restraining order within 10 months of magistrates imposing it.

And she said the courts and police should do more to intervene in harassment cases earlier and give tougher penalties to those convicted.

As previously reported, Foote, 60, of Gurney Road, was sentenced at Southampton Magistrates Court for breaching a restraining order and reoffending while subject to a conditional discharge – charges which he denied.

The court heard how Mrs Webb had initially been helping look after Mr Foote’s late wife Carolle who was ill.

But the relationship between Foote and mother-of-two Mrs Webb deteriorated after his wife died and he began regularly following her, it was heard.

When police raided his home they found photographs of the 51-year-old mum-of-two and a blow-up doll, the court heard.

Magistrates sentenced Foote on February 26, last year to a two year conditional discharge and a five year restraining order for harassment, it was heard.

But the court heard how he breached the order 10 months later in December last year when Mrs Webb spotted Foote in Poundland in Shirley High Street while with her grown up daughter.

In defence, solicitors for Foote denied he had “actively sought her out” and the meeting was a coincidence.

District Judge Lorraine Morgan said his action amounted to harassment and sentenced him to a 12 month community order.

But speaking afterwards Mrs Webb said: “He should have gone to prison. He’s made my life complete hell and had a big impact on my life. It seemed like he was everywhere I was.

“I’ve had to changed my job and the way I live and even my car so he doesn’t know what vehicle I’m driving. I’ve lost so much weight and my health has suffered. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.

“What makes me physically sick is that I went there to looked after his wife and this is how I get repaid. What he has done has imprisoned me and he should go to prison.”

She claimed that more needs to be done to protect harassment victims in the earlier days of their ordeals and for tougher punishments for their perpetrators afterwards, adding: “Harassment isn’t taken seriously enough. There needs to be more laws to nip it in the bud. The justice system needs to look at it.”.

Foote was also ordered to complete a 20-day rehabilitation order, a £100 fine and £680 in costs.