Craig Long, of Merlin Road, Birkenhead, has been sentenced to three years imprisonment for stalking a woman over a three-year period, during which he sent her “disgusting messages” and threatened that he “knew where she worked”. He appeared at Chester Crown Court on Friday, October 2, after previously pleading guilty to stalking involving serious harm and distress.
Campaign of unwanted contact
The court heard that between February 2022 and September 2024, the victim, a 38-year-old woman, was subjected to several prolonged episodes of unwanted sexual texts and phone calls from an unknown man. During these episodes, she was contacted multiple times a day and asked to meet the man for sex. It was also reported that the man was touching himself inappropriately while on the phone to her.
He would also tell her he knew where she worked, which forced her to leave her job for her own safety. Despite giving no information about himself, a number of clues pointing to Long as the caller were identified in the phone calls and text messages the victim had received and kept.
Clues lead to identification
In one of the text messages, the man had asked the victim to meet him in a car park for sex - enquiries later uncovered that this car park was very close to Long’s address. As well as this, when his identity was challenged, the man on the phone suggested that he and the victim had a connection, providing the victim with the initials of his current partner. These initials lined up with a person the victim knew of, and that she knew was currently in a relationship with Craig Long.
Long was arrested in April 2024, however he refused to answer any questions put to him by officers. He was then released on bail, with strict conditions not to contact the victim. Following Long’s arrest, there came a five-month period in which the victim stopped receiving the explicit calls and text messages.
Further contact and sentencing
However, in September 2024, another unknown number began calling her, with her reporting that she could hear a man breathing heavily down the phone. Long was charged with the offences in July 2025. Enquiries into the mobile phone numbers used to contact the victim resulted in officers finding no stored data, with it being believed that Long had purchased SIM cards with the intention of them only being used to contact the victim.
In a statement read at court, the victim explained that her mental health had been severely impacted by a man who, prior to the phone calls beginning, she had never had any contact with before, and that she was now a different person as a result. She went on to say that she had taken additional steps to secure her home, as she feared the possibility that the man contacting her would turn up at her address and that her personal life and relationships with loved ones had been severely affected by his persistent and unwanted contact.
Long was sentenced to three years imprisonment and handed an indefinite restraining order against the victim.
Police comment on case
Following sentencing, Police Constable Yzanne Baty, who led the investigation into Long’s offending, said: “Craig Long targeted an innocent woman and subjected her to a barrage of disgusting messages and phone calls over a period of nearly three years, despite him being in a relationship himself and having no personal connection to the victim he preyed upon.
“Despite being clearly told no on several occasions, he refused to take rejection as the answer and instead doubled down, going to great lengths to remain in contact with the victim by obtaining a number of SIM cards at his own personal expense that would only be used to when he wanted to contact her.
“Long treated this as a game, dropping cryptic clues as to his identity and to how much information he knew about his victim whilst in the pursuit of his warped fantasies.
“What was a game to him has had a devastating impact on the woman he relentlessly targeted. She believed he could around any corner at any given moment, leading her to take considerable steps through at home security to keep her and her family safe from harm.
“I have no doubt that this has been a deeply challenging experience for the victim in this case, as she has had to relive the horrific events she was subjected to during our investigation and then again in court.
“With that said, it has been her bravery in coming forward, providing us with the vital evidence we needed, that was absolutely paramount in securing this conviction.
“I would like to express my sincerest thanks to her and I hope that now she can begin her journey of healing, safe in the knowledge that against the man who made her life a misery for nearly three years is facing justice for his crimes.”
