A midnight stalker who targeted a woman in east London for six months and eventually broke into her home has been jailed for a total of two-and-a-half years after being caught by his DNA.

Charles Cox has also been given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order, an indefinite restraining order and made to pay £190 victim compensation.

The 28-year-old from Medway Road in Bow lurked in the woman’s garden that backs on the Regent’s Canal at around midnight on May 4, 2020, then returned several times a month later. He broke in on November 3, six months after first stalking her, to steal items including underwear.

The woman checked back on her CCTV after the burglary and saw Cox in her garden three times the previous month.

But Cox had left a DNA trail on the back door during the burglary and was arrested on November 19.

“We still don’t know why Cox developed an obsession with the woman he had never met before,” Det Con Michael Dixon said. “His stalking must have been extremely disturbing and shocking, especially as it was her home. Charles Cox went on to break into the house.”

Cox was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court on May 24 after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to stalking and burglary.