9:13pm UK, Tuesday May 06, 2008

A former psychiatric patient who conducted a "terrifying" three-year campaign of harassment against actress Uma Thurman has been found guilty of stalking.

Uma Thurman was 'terrified'

The Kill Bill star said she felt "sick" and "completely freaked out" when she came face-to-face for the first time last week with 37-year-old Jack Jordan in a US court.

The out-of-work lifeguard and pool cleaner had a fantasy that the star was "pre-destined" to be with him and that she wouldbe happy only if they were together, Manhattan Supreme Court heard.

He faces up to a year in jail after the jury convicted him of stalking and aggravated harassment. He was cleared of two other harassment counts after a week-long trial.

Assistant district attorney Jessica Taub said the trial was "not about a man in love" and added that Jordan "terrified" the star.

"The defendant drove through every single stop sign that was in his path," she said, "This isn't about love for Uma Thurman. This is about self-absorption. This is about getting to his goal."

Jordan's lawyer, George Vomvolakis, said his client's behaviour was obsessive but insisted Jordan never meant to scare, harass, annoy or alarm the actress.

Between early 2005 and shortly before his arrest in October last year, Jordan told Thurman's parents he would kill himself unless he could see her.

He also tried to get into her trailer during filming, and even turned up at the New York home she shares with her two young children.

Last week, Thurman, 38, told the court: "I felt afraid. I felt afraid now for my life," she said.

"I realised this was a very dangerous situation. I was frightened for the lives of my children and myself. It was clear we were in serious danger and we needed professional help."

During the trial the actress's hands visibly shook as she held up one of the cards Jordan sent her containing a drawing of an open grave, a headstone and a man standing on the edge of a razor blade.

A spiral of random words referred to "chocolate, mouth, soft, kissing" and declared: "My hands should be on your body at all times."