The Devon and Cornwall police and crime commissioner was left living in fear by a three month campaign of stalking by her ’bullying’ ex boyfriend.

Alison Hernandez ended her relationship with partner Gil Winfield after he attacked her on two occasions but he carried on turning up at her home and pestering her with gifts, e-mails and messages.

He ignored pleas from Miss Hernandez, her friends and her lawyers and used her high public profile to blackmail her into not going to the police.

She was forced to move out of her home in Torquay and stop publishing her diary of official engagements because she feared he was using it to track her movements.

He tried to book a place at a Conservative Party dinner which he thought she would be attending and went secretly to a political event in Plymouth where she was a guest.

He bombarded her with messages professing his love but also blaming her for the breakdown of their two year relationship. He sent her gifts of Prosecco, flowers and chocolates and offered to marry her if she would take him back.

Miss Hernandez locked him out of her home and dumped his possessions on the pavement after he attacked her for the second time in February.

Their relationship had been turbulent and Winfield assaulted her for the first time in late 2017 when he grabbed her wrist so hard during an argument in her bedroom that he left a bruise.

The second attack happened in his car and she was so terrified after being hit across the face that she slapped him back and got out of his car while it was still moving.

Winfield, aged 48, was spared an immediate jail sentence after a judge heard how he now accepts the relationship is over and has already suffered by the suspension of his registration as a chartered surveyor and the consequent loss of his business.

He was sent on a course in ’respectful relationships and emotional resilience’ by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.

Winfield, of Cricketfield Road, Torquay admitted stalking and two offences of battery and was jailed for 15 months, suspended for two years and ordered to do 180 hours unpaid community work and 15 days of rehabilitation activities.

The judge described his behaviour as bullying and told him: ’This may have been the obsession of a besotted man but it was all about manipulation, control, and revenge for her having ended the relationship. No one should be in any doubt about that.

‘You told her solicitors you are not a bad man, but you behaved very badly. You assaulted her twice and persisted in contacting her despite warnings.

‘You caused the woman you professes to love alarm and distress and caused serious disruption to her day to day life. You made her and others feel very uncomfortable.

‘You attempted to use emotional blackmail and you pursued her day after day. Given her job, she felt more than ordinarily inhibited to report your behaviour."

The judge imposed a restraining order forbidding any contact for ten years.

Judith Constable, prosecuting, said the assault in Miss Hernandez’s bedroom happened in November or December 2017 and she ended the relationship after the second attack in Winfield’s car on February 18 this year.

The stalking carried from then until his arrest in May and forced her to move out of her home to stay with a friend. He tracked her down and turned up with Prosecco and other gifts.

She blocked his phone calls and e-mails but he carried on leaving dozens of voicemails. He fooled her into opening e-mails by using different addresses.

Miss Constable read out victim impact statements in which Miss Hernandez detailed how she had been left scared, upset and alarmed by his stalking.

She said: ‘I felt harassed. I did not want to go home in case he was there, waiting outside. I was always looking over my shoulder and panicking that he might be there. It was very distressing.

‘I just want him to stop and leave me alone. I have had to change my routine and take down my public events calendar to prevent him knowing where I will be. He knows I did not want to report this. It has caused me a great deal of stress."

Stephen Nunn, defending, said Winfield had never made any threats in his letters and messages and now accepted the relationship was over. He had never been in trouble before this case and was at risk of losing his business because his professional registration had been suspended and was likely to be revoked.

Miss Hernandez was a Conservative councillor in Torbay before being chosen as her party’s candidate to fight the election for police and crime commissioner for Devon and Cornwall.

She was elected in May 2016 and remains in post. An inquiry into allegations of election overspending while acting as election agent to Tory candidate at the 2015 general election in Torbay resulted in no action.