Allen has spoken publicly about her seven-year stalking ordeal and the effect it had on her life. Her stalker, Alex Gray, first made contact with Allen in 2008 when he sent her a series of tweets, claiming he had written her song "The Fear", under the Twitter handle "@lilyallenisRIP". He then sent Allen threatening letters to her home, her clothes shop, her record label and her manager's office. In October 2015, he sent an email to his mother stating he was planning on murdering a celebrity, spent nights in her back garden, broke into her bedroom whilst she was sleeping and ultimately forced Allen to move. She has strongly criticised the Metropolitan Police for their inaction in the case, which included refusals to show Allen a picture of her stalker, lending her a panic alarm before demanding it back and refusal to believe stalking incidents were linked. In April 2016, Gray was convicted of burglary and harassment. At Harrow Crown Court on 10 June, Judge Martyn Barklem sentenced him to an indefinite hospital order. Gray was also made the subject of a restraining order and banned from entering the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham or the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.