Gwyneth Paltrow has lost her legal battle against a man accused of stalking her for years.
Dante Soiu, a former pizza delivery man, was acquitted by a Los Angeles jury of felony stalking after prosecutors claimed he sent the Oscar-winning actress gifts and letters in a second case related to her.
Soiu was convicted but later declared legally insane in the 2000s after he was accused of sending lewd messages and sex toys to the actress, according to the Associated Press. He was committed to a psychiatric institute.
The 66-year-old began writing to Paltrow again. In the letters, he described her “bowing to death” and wrote: “I have a goal: to marry Gwyneth Paltrow and take care of her.”
He has also sent her religious books and forwarded her letters that he sent to President Obama and Angelina Jolie.
Testifying at the trial, Soiu claimed he was a reformed man and continued to write letters to Paltrow to ask for her forgiveness for the earlier messages he had sent.
“I was very lonely,” he said. “I wanted to have a pen pal. I have no desire to hurt her feelings. I have no desire to harass her.”
Paltrow cried when she testified during the trial after being asked if the letters made her worry about her children’s safety.
”I felt very upset by it,” she said. “It defied logic, and I found it very, very upsetting. This was something I had been through a very long and traumatic experience with already. I’ve been dealing with this for 17 years with the communications from this man.“
Additional reporting by agencies
