Police said Hussain rang his ex's doorbell for two hours, only leaving after a neighbour called the police

In September 2024, detectives received a report of strangers turning up at the home of a woman - some believing she wanted to act out a "rape fantasy".

Each of the men claimed they had been invited round to her house after matching with her on the dating app Tinder.

But the reality was that Asad Hussain, who she had been in a relationship with for a matter of weeks, had created a fake profile in her name and was pretending to be her online.

The 36-year-old, from Cheadle, in Greater Manchester, would invite random men to the woman's home in Cheshire, with some turning up in the middle of the night.

"That's not just violating your privacy, it's violating your feeling of safety, your children's feeling of safety," said PC Keith Terrill, a specialist stalking investigator at Cheshire Police.

"This is one of the most disturbing stalking cases Cheshire Constabulary has ever investigated."

Hussain was only caught after a police review of footage from the victim's doorbell, which was then checked against other systems to establish his identity, Cheshire Police said.

He was jailed for eight years after being found guilty of stalking, assault and failing to comply with an order to provide passcodes to his devices at Chester Crown Court.

Asad Hussain set up a fake profile to encourage men to turn up at the victim's home

Hussain first contacted the woman using the fake alias of Mick Renney in April 2024 on social media.

The couple went on a number of dates but, as their relationship developed, he became "increasingly controlling".

On one occasion, he rang her doorbell for two hours because a male friend was visiting and only left when police were called.

"This came to a head during an incident in May 2024 when he attempted to take control of her mobile phone and prevent her from using it on her own," said Terrill.

"In the course of that, he assaulted her."

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Tinder stalker arrested in layby

Hussain tried to rekindle the relationship but the woman rebutted his attempts on numerous occasions.

This is when Hussain made the Tinder account using her photographs and personal details.

"He started inviting men round to her home and giving them her mobile number," said Terrill. "As time went on, the instructions that the men were receiving started to escalate.

"Initially, they were told to attend and to knock on her address. Then they were told that she was in the address waiting for them to arrive and to let themselves in and the front door was open, but they should give it a shove because it's stiff.

"That further escalated to some of the men being told on Tinder that she wanted to engage in a 'rape fantasy' and that she wanted to be roughed up and if she said 'no' she wanted it more."

PC Keith Terrill said Hussain went to great lengths to avoid being caught

At least 18 men turned up at the woman's home, although police estimate the true figure is much higher.

One of the men broke a glass panel at her home after shoving the front door, while another stranger entered her home for several minutes while she was out. Her teenage daughter was upstairs alone at the time.

Cheshire Police were alerted in September and an investigation began to trace the person responsible.

"All we had was an initial statement from the victim and, at the start, the victim didn't know who Mick Renney actually was," said Terrill.

"All we had to go on to identify him was some video doorbell footage [from when he visited her home].

"From that, we identified that Mick Renney always travelled in a white Audi R8 and from doing checks, we identified it was actually registered and insured to Asad Hussain."

It was soon found that Hussain had made significant efforts to conceal his real identity to avoid detection.

Hussain used three phones - his personal one, a second phone for Mick Renney and third phone for the fake Tinder account.

While Hussain is believed to have destroyed the phones after learning about the police investigation, detectives were able to link him to the phones through inquiries with telecoms firms.

"We found that the movements of [the phones] we could attribute to Hussain as they started to correlate," said Terrill. "So for example if [one phone] moved, they would all move together."

Several of the men also gave their details to police to help bring Hussain to justice.

Terrill said: "People believe that if they use cyber-enabled techniques to stalk others or attempt to commit offences from behind a screen that that will somehow protect them. The truth of the matter is it won't.

"If you do it online via these techniques it leaves a trail and we will use the powers available to us to find that trail and that trail will lead back to you.

"You will be caught and you will be held accountable."

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Stalker who used Tinder to terrorise ex jailed

Stalker made fake Tinder profile to target his ex