An “extreme” stalker who beat his victim over a two-year ordeal and then followed her as she fled 2,000 miles to Cyprus has been jailed.

Kyle Weilding strangled and threatened to stab the woman, he also vowed to stab her dog and smash all the windows of her home in Rusholme, Manchester.

Police said he “repeatedly hit” his victim and applied for the same job as her so he could “watch” her. He also threatened the woman’s family before she fled for a new life abroad.

Weilding was arrested in January when he returned to the UK and was jailed for five years at Manchester Crown Court.

The 34-year-old was convicted of controlling and coercive behaviour, assault and non-fatal strangulation.

The judge also imposed a 10-year restraining order.

Weilding, of no fixed abode, began the abuse when he found she was friends with another man on social media.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said his reaction was to “hit her repeatedly” with the “horrific attack” leaving the woman in “extreme pain”.

He then confiscated her phone and credit card and made her lie to work colleagues when they asked “why she had bruises”, police added.

She fled to Cyprus “in a desperate attempt” to get away from him but he tracked his victim down to “terrorise her even further”.

He tried to stab her before he was arrested by British police when he came home.

Det Con Ross Sidebottom said: “Weilding is a person who not only caused torment but horrific abuse and injuries to this woman who now suffers daily with the traumatic consequences of his continued controlling actions.

“I would like to commend and thank her for her extreme bravery in coming forward and making sure we able to get the evidence to convict him for his actions as he was a clear danger to women.”

He added he hoped she could start her recovery “free in the knowledge he is behind bars as no person should have to suffer the way she did”.

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