A STUDENT who started a sinister 16 year stalking campaign when she fell for an academic mentoring her during work experience has today been found guilty of harrassment.

Anna Smirnoff, then a trainee psycologist at Newcastle University, was supervised by her victim for just 16 days during 1990.

But the short placement was long enough for her to become "obsessed" with her victim, a psycologist who cannot be named, and led to a 16-year nightmare for him, his family and his colleagues.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how Smirnoff, who had worked as a teacher in secondary schools in Scotland, South Tyneside and County Durham in the 1980s, bombarded the married dad with thousands of letters, telephone calls and e-mails and branded his wife "fat ass".

Smirnoff, who was employed as a child psycologist at a school in France until her arrest, sent him a copy of a chilling "stalkers manual" calling herself a warrior, claiming it was in a bid to "cheer him up".

When he changed his telephone number and even moved home or job, Smirnoff travelled to the UK from her home in Paris to stalk the streets and track him down again.

Her obsession spread to her inundating his work colleagues with offensive and often illicit material and telephone calls.

And she even sent letters to the Queen, then Prime Minister Tony Blair, MPs, television jouralists, newspapers, health care trusts, the NSPCC and social services.

Smirnoff, now 49, claimed in some correspondence her victim , his wife and his colleagues were invovled in illicit sex orgies, incestuous relationships and child abuse.

As a result her victim and one of his work collegues went through the humiliation of being put under internal investigation - which proved they were innocent - by their employers.

The campaign came to a climax last year when Smirnoff was arrested at her home in France and brought to the UK to be tried for harrassment.

She denied four charges of harrassment relating to her main victim and three of his work colleagues.

After a two week trial and less than an hour of deliberation by the jury she was found guilty of two charges, one relating to the main victim, and cleared of two, relating to his work colleagues.

Her case will be back before the court next week and Judge Tony Lancaster said he would be considering a hospital order in her case.

Newcastle Crown Court heard during the trial how the main victim's ordeal started in January 1990 when he mentored Smirnoff, from Paris.

After the supervision period ended the victim shook hands with his student and expected he would never hear from her again.

But just three days after the placement ended he received a telephone call from her sayng that she wanted to have sex with him.

The court heard how the victim told Smirnoff she was behaving innappropriately and ended the conversation.

But days later she started harrassing her victim and his girlfriend, who he went on to marry, at home and at work.

Prosecutor Glen Gatland told the court: "He would return home to find flowers and cakes on his door step with notes from Anna and he would see her hanging around the street."

The court heard how Smirnoff would run after her victim when he went out for an early morning jog and would stand and scream up to his house - urging her victim to have sex with her.

One night she was spotted standing in his street wearing a long coat.

Mr Gatland added: "She opened the coat to reveal she was totally naked underneath.

Smirnoff then progressed to making "thousands" of telephone calls, some silent and some obsene, to her victim's home and work.

Mr Gatland said: "As the harrassment continued he was in a sense at his wits end, it was obvious from the contents of the letters and telephone calls she had developed an obsession with him and saw his wife as a threat.

"Eventually he went to the police."

In 1991 she was brought before the court for harrassing her victim and secioned under the Mental Health Act.

After her release she returned to France in 1992.

Mr Gatland said: "He has not seen nor spoken to her since that time.

"All he wanted to do was get on with his life.

"But unfortunatley Miss Smirnoff's return to France did not mean an end to the problem.

"She has pursued a relentless campaign of harrassment ever since."

The court heard how the victim told the police of his continuing ordeal in February 2000.

At that time she signed a written declaration, via the French police and Interpol, agreeing to never contact him again.

But by the following year her campaign was back in full swing.

The court heard how in one month in 2005 her victim received 480 e-mails.

She also inundated her victim's workplace with telephone calls, forcing staff to take the phone off the hook.

And she forwarded her hate mail to some of the country's most prominent figures.

Mr Gatland said; "She copied the letters she sent to other psycologists, they were sent to the Queen, Tony Blair as Prime Minister, MPs, television journalists, newspapers, healthcare trusts, the NSPCC and social services, all making allegations her victim and his colleagues were guilty of professional misconduct and child abuse."

The court heard how one of Smirnoff's victim's colleagues received up to 30 obscene and threatening phone calls a night.

Mr Gatland said: "The situation has taken its toll on all the witnesses.

"But the main victim in particular has borne the brunt of it, it has left him extremely anxious, very depressed and very fearful for his family and for himself."

The court heard Smirnoff is a "charming French lady, intelligent and articulate" who is "undoubtedly mentally ill".

Smirnoff will claimed she wanted to protect her main victim from people she believes are involved in criminal activity such as child abuse and illicit sexual activity.

Mr Gatland told jurors; "She is obsessed and she is dillusional"

"THe reality is there is no threat to him whatsoever, the only threat to him comes from Miss Smirnoff.

"It is a fact she has had this relentless campaign over 16 years.

"This case is a very sad one, it is sad to see this defendant on trial and it is sad because of the consequences of her actions on the victims of her harrassment."

Smirnoff thanked the judge before she was led away from the dock after the verdict.

She will be held in a secure hospital, where she has been for the last three months, until she is sentenced.