A young woman suffered a campaign of "vicious bullying" on social media by an obsessed stalker, who sent her a link to a suicide site and suggested she kill herself with cyanide.

The victim endured countless vitriolic insults on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram from "infatuated" 19-year-old Adam Rahman, whom she barely knew.

She was in the public gallery at Leicester Crown Court to see him sentenced to 18 months' detention.

The court was told Rahman had, "to some extent", been bullied himself as a child - something which the judge said made Rahman's behaviour even harder to understand.

After Rahman was sentenced, the victim, also 19, said: "I don't understand why he's been doing this – we don't even know each other, apart from having attended the same high school.

"It's been really horrible.

"I posted a holiday picture at a concert, but he re-posted it saying I'd slept with one of the performers.

"He had so many fake profiles on social media and all my accounts were private, not public, but the police managed to link him to the anonymous messages.

"Stalkers just want to keep wearing you down, but you mustn't give in, even though I've had some sleepless nights."

Her mother said: "We would have been happier with a five year sentence.

"Let's hope this is the end of it."

Judge Philip Head told Rahman: "You're 19, and before you embarked upon this course of vicious bullying of your victim you hadn't been in trouble.

"I'm reminded by your advocate that in childhood, to some extent, you'd been on the receiving end – but that makes it less understandable how you could behave in that way to someone with whom you'd clearly become infatuated."

It was not the first time Rahman had been in court for his behaviour towards the victim.

In May 2016, he was given a 12 month detention sentence, suspended for two years, for sending the victim nasty messages in 2015, including daubing 'SLAG' across her car windscreen.

He was banned from any further contact under the terms of a restraining order.

The judge said: "Five months after being sentenced, you then resumed that behaviour, this time sending anonymous messages that were threatening, horrible and abusive, including linking her to a suicide site – inviting her to do that – and making accusations of immorality."

Rahman was arrested in December and denied sending the messages.

The judge said: "You were bailed and resumed exactly the same course of conduct. Overall it lasted four or five months.

"Later you claimed you'd been framed by someone using your (Wi-Fi) location, but the police were able to disprove that.

"It's had a really substantial ongoing mental impact upon the victim.

"If you resume this contact again you'll receive a very substantial sentence."

Rahman, of Stoughton Road, Oadby, admitted breaching both the restraining order and the suspended sentence, between October 2016 and February this year.

Jonathan Eley, prosecuting, said that in the "threatening and abusive messages", Rahman called the victim "a narcissist, grime, slag, utter dog **** and whore".

He sent her the chemical formula for cyanide, suggesting she "make it, take it and make everyone happy", and saying he would "enjoy watching it happen slowly".

The court heard that Rahman's mother had written to the judge saying her son now accepted he had "lied throughout" to the police.

In a personal impact statement, the victim said: "It feels as though he can get to me whatever I do.

"He's able to read my (social media) accounts even though they're on 'private' and I'm worried about what might happen next."

Paul Prior, mitigating, said: "There has been psychological harm to the victim.

"What seems to have been a deep-rooted fascination by the defendant for this complainant was something he simply couldn't contain after the (May 2016) sentence.

"It led to a re-ignition of sending - albeit under an alias - hurtful messages to the complainant.

"There's not much to be said about the content of those messages because they're awful, but he has pleaded guilty.

"Save for the initial stalking offence, he has no previous convictions.

"There's a history of him being bullied at school and it seems he took out on another what had been taken out on him.

"He knows in future he mustn't contact the complainant in any shape or form."

The judge activated 10 months of the suspended jail sentence to run consecutively with an eight month sentence for breaching the restraining order.

The victim said: "You can't understand what it's like until it happens to you.

"To any other stalking victims I'd say, be strong and report it – and be patient with the process that the police have to go through.

"I got a lot of support from a stalking helpline, they were empathetic; good people to talk to."