WHEN mum-of-three Mazy Dickinson woke to the sound of stones hitting her window, she dismissed it as kids mucking about.
But when CCTV footage revealed a fully-grown hooded man, the 31-year-old, from Seaham, County Durham, posted the video on Facebook, sparking a nightmare turned her life into a sinister "Netflix thriller".
Identified on social media, stranger Gavin Robinson, 28, launched a terrifying campaign of stalking – sitting outside Mazy's house at night, following her to work and sending her horrifying messages, threatening to split her head open with an axe.
Robinson has now been jailed for two-and-a-half years but Mazy has been left traumatised for life.
The shop assistant says: “One day life was normal, the next I had an obsessive stalker.
“I still to this day don’t know why I was targeted. But I’m thankful my family and I are alive.
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“I wish I’d reported him sooner. I want to warn people to get help if anything like this happens to them.”
Stranger in the night
Mazy shares three young children with partner Bryan Edwards, 30, but his work as a land driller on the oil rigs meant he was away for three weeks of the month.
In February, the couple were snuggled in bed when they heard loud bangs against the window.
"We thought it was some school kids throwing stones,” says Mazy.
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7The next day, Bryan left the family home in Seaham for work in Ireland.
Curious about the stone throwing, Mazy remembered their neighbour had CCTV cameras.
Mazy says: “He came over and showed me the footage.
“I gasped when I realised it wasn’t kids, it was some creepy adult man in a dark tracksuit with his hood up.
“He was stood outside the house, throwing stones for hours.
“Creeped out, I put it on Facebook to see if anyone recognised him.”
Within minutes, Mazy got dozens of comments, and phone calls, identifying the man as Robinson, who people knew from the area.
Horrifying threats
Although she thought it was strange, Mazy, who works full-time at a local Morrisons, decided to not to report him.
She says: “I continued life as normal. So every morning I fed the kids, did the school run then walked to work, which was two minutes from my house.”
But months later, Mazy found dozens of messages in her message requests folder from Robinson.
The messages went back three months and read: "Do you think you’re safe?" "I can take everything that you value away from you. I can f*** up your pathetic life and incapacitate you from head to toe you freak."
Another read: "You and that small s***house man Bryan are just sitting ducks."
Robinson branded her: "Corner-shop girl," and wrote messages like "I will GBH you and Bryan in front of your kids", "You’ll be even uglier when I’m finished with you" and "You two will be my slaves."
Mazy says: “Every day, there were missed calls too. I broke down into tears.
“This stranger knew Bryan’s name, and he knew where I worked and lived.
“I was trembling, and wrote back to him that I didn’t know him. He immediately replied that I’d been cheeky to him on Facebook and had taken the p*** out of him.
“Suddenly, I realised it was Gavin, the man everyone named in the video. I was petrified.
“I called Bryan but he was so far away, I didn’t feel safe. I took the kids to my dad’s.
“Bryan reassured me everything was okay when I returned home. He spoke to the neighbours and asked them to keep an eye out.”
But days later, Mazy spotted Robinson waiting outside her children’s school gates.
When she got a closer look at his face, she realised he’d previously come to her workplace and stared at her in silence before leaving.
From then on, Mazy began getting calls in the middle of the night and when she answered, Robinson would breathe heavily down the phone.
Other times, he sent threatening voice notes, once threatening to "slice her face with a blade."
Mazy says: “I worried every day if he’d hurt me or the kids. I didn’t know why he was doing this to us.
“With Bryan away, I felt unprotected and helpless. I didn’t consider telling the police, because I thought it wasn’t serious enough.
I worried every day if he’d hurt me or the kids. I didn’t know why he was doing this to us
“But things got worse when I checked my neighbour’s CCTV footage again and realised Gavin had been watching our house in the nights.
“I wanted to be sick. I began watching over my shoulder constantly. The kids were terrified too and we all used the back door.
“I even parked down the road and changed our daily routines.”
Living hell
Robinson continued terrorising Mazy but was careful to show up at the house when her partner wasn’t home.
Mazy says: “Bryan would leave at 6am and 15 minutes later, Gavin would be on the fence. He knew our schedules.
“Meanwhile, the messages and abuse continued. He described my kid’s school and their uniform crests.
“One time, he told me he’d split my head open with an axe. I worried he’d murder us.
“My life became a living hell. I could no longer go out and I became a recluse, in fear of seeing him outside.
“I felt like I was in a thriller Netflix series that I loved watching. Yet it was happening to me, and it was real life.”
Contact the Samaritans
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, contact The Samaritans on 116 123.
They are available for free at anytime.
Or email https://www.samaritans.org/
Things took an even darker turn in May 2023, when Robinson followed Mazy to work whilst she was with her young daughter.
She ended up getting her colleagues to lock all the doors, in fear of him killing them.
Mazy says: “Gavin ran up to the store doors and shook them violently. He was shouting he was going to kill me.
“I couldn’t stop sobbing and shaking. When the police arrived, I told them everything and he was arrested down the street.”
In August 2023, Gavin Ewan Robinson, 28, pleaded guilty to stalking involving fear of violence and possession of cannabis at Durham Crown Court.
He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years, and Mazy got a lifetime restraining order against him.
Mazy says: “I was relieved he was going to jail, but I wondered what would happen after that.
“He was an obsessed creep, and I didn’t think a restraining order would stop him.
“Now, I’m traumatised for life and sometimes I still feel him watching over our house.
“I have crippling PTSD and my sons struggle because of it too.
“Looking back, I feel silly for not reporting it sooner. I should’ve listened to my gut instinct.
“I hope families out there know, if something doesn’t feel right, act on it.”
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