Stalker played horror movie role so well she landed herself in jail (2025)

A stalker adopted horror film star Kathy Bates as an alias to launch a months-long campaign of harassment against a nurse she met at a psychiatric hospital.

Holly White, 27, claims to have fallen in love at first sight with nurse Daniel McCann when she was a patient for two months at Liverpool’s Clock View mental health facility.

When the nurse ignored messages saying she fancied him, White continued messaging him using a Facebook profile under the name Kathy Bates.

Bates was lauded for her performance as nurse Annie Wilkes, the ‘number one fan’ of best-selling author she held captive in the 1990 film Misery.

While Bates won and Oscar for the role, White’s portrayal was so chilling it landed her in jail and forced Mr McCann and his girlfriend to leave Liverpool, MailOnline reported.

‘Hope you can run because if I ever see you, you are dead’, White messaged his girlfriend.

‘I hate you, you dirty little paedo. Good luck getting a fella if you ever break up with Daniel.’

In a statement read in court, Mr McCann’s girlfriend said: ‘She threatened to hurt me and she even stated that she hoped I would get raped.

‘I wouldn’t stay on my own in my own home. I was constantly looking over my shoulder.

‘At one stage, I was too afraid to walk down the street in daylight hours in case she was around. She has really changed the way we are living our lives.’

Angela Conlan, prosecuting, said: ‘Using the Kathy Bates account, the defendant commented on a picture of his mother being “fit” and messaged, “Where is she going dressed like that? Not bad for an old boot”.’

Messaging his girlfriend, White said ‘Does Danny being fat make you uncomfortable’ and ‘No engagement ring yet sexy?’.

Mr McCann said: ‘I am constantly stressed and paranoid about any contact from Holly.

‘I felt intimidated by her. Eventually I had to move away from Liverpool, a city I was born and raised in.’

White even claimed she’d had ‘numerous sexual interactions’ with Mr McCann while in hospital.

Her lawyer, Steve Charters, said White was having relationship issues and is now in a better place since reducing her medication.

White admitted harassing the couple between February and June last year. She also admitted sending a communication threatening death or serious harm to Mr McCann’s girlfriend.

Jailed for 16 weeks at Sefton Magistrates’ Court, White has also been banned from contacting her victims for 10 years under a restraining order.

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