The female fantasist who stalked herself to terrify her friends

The police provided extra patrols in their street, panic alarms were installed and they suspected every man they met.

But Casanova, as the predator called himself in more than a dozen sinister notes, was right in their midst. In fact, he was one of them.

Lauren Holden had written the threatening letters which were hand delivered to herself and her two friends.

The 25-year-old nightclub worker invented the stalker drama as an attention-seeking ploy after the break-up of her relationship.

She has since been given a suspended jail sentence after a jury found her guilty of two charges of harassment.

At one stage in the drama, Holden was found tied up with a plastic bag over her head at the house she shared with one of her terrified friends.

But when officers found the security camera monitoring the property had been switched off at the time - something only someone with inside knowledge could do - they became suspicious.

Holden was arrested a short time later. Her friends Leanne Roberts, 27, and Taneka Flearey, 24, worked with her at the Coyote Wild nightclub in Derby.

Holden shared a house with Miss Flearey, while Miss Roberts lived nearby.

One of Holden's twisted notes read: "It has come to my attention that you have a boyfriend. I feel it is only right to warn you I find this most displeasing.

"You should not have made me mad. This is unwise. Rest assured you will be punished. You complete me... Your body lures me... I will ravish you."

Miss Roberts said: "It could have been anyone (writing the letters).

"Everyone was a suspect. I didn't feel safe around the customers at the bar. Everyone who looked at me was the stalker in my eyes.

"We kept it to ourselves at first, thinking it was just someone messing around.

"But the stuff in the letters became really disturbing and we had to get the police involved. We started having suspicions about Lauren, but we couldn't believe it.

"When she was arrested it brought it all crashing home to us and turned our suspicions into reality. I felt like I had been stabbed in the back.

"We would have liked her to go to prison for our peace of mind. But she needs help and her friends around to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Miss Flearey said: "None of it feels real now - it was like the script of a movie.

"I was petrified that one of those letters was going to turn up.

"We were really frightened at the time - and things still aren't the same even now."

During Holden's campaign, in February last year, Derbyshire Police began a surveillance operation.

Detectives, scenes-of-crime officers and surveillance equipment technicians all worked to identify the imaginary stalker.

The police are said to have spent 235 hours working on the operation.

After her trial at Derby Crown Court Holden was sentenced to nine months jail, suspended for two years, and a 12-month restraining order banning her from contacting her victims.

David Outterside, for Holden, said she had since left Derby to live with her family in York. He said she was "intelligent enough to learn from her mistakes".

Judge David Pugsley told Holden her behaviour was "immature and attention-seeking".

He added: "There is a sinister aspect to this case. It is vital the police take these matters seriously, and this sort of thing can weaken their resolve.'

A police spokesman said: "At the time it seemed like a genuine investigation. But her story started to unravel."