A BEAUTY queen who was stalked by an obsessed fan has called for the government to take further action to support victims.

Samantha Bumford, a trainee primary school teacher and former Miss England finalist, was tailed by self-styled model Jonathan Deal, 39.

It emerged in court that Deal, who besieged Miss Bumford with messages after ‘falling in love’ with her on Facebook, has 19 previous offences relating to harassment and stalking incidents dating back to 2003.

Miss Bumford went to police after Deal turned up uninvited at several of her shows. Deal also told her he was going to audition for Britain’s Got Talent with a song he wrote for her.

His infatuation culminated in him following her to the finals of Miss England in Nottingham, where he tried to kiss her as she came off stage.

In February, Deal, of Manor Road in Bournemouth, was sentenced to 23 weeks in prison after admitting stalking.

Days after leaving prison, he contravened a series of strict conditions made by magistrates. He was sent back to prison for 26 weeks last month after being convicted of two charges of breaching his restraining order by taking to Facebook to re-post messages.

Miss Bumford, who lives in Poole, is now calling for a ‘stalkers charter’ to protect victims.

“I’ve recently had meetings with the former Bournemouth council leader John Beesley and police and crime commissioner candidate David Sidwick,” she said.

“It’s going amazingly well and I feel really optimistic that this could work and we could make a difference. Both of them are really backing my campaign. which is incredible, and I’m lucky to have their support.

“I’m also hoping to get backing from MPs too, although I understand anything of this nature is a lengthy process.”

“We want to make a lot of noise about this and get people to really support us.”

Under the charter, possible victims would be able to access information if a person of concern has previous convictions.

“Deal had 19 related convictions,” Miss Bumford said.

“That’s just unbelievable to me. It’s more common to have, for example, an ex-boyfriend stalking a former partner. It was unusual that Deal was a stranger to me who just became fixated.

“However it happens though, it’s very scary.”

Miss Bumford has previously said during Deal’s court hearing she had considered giving up modelling as a result of his campaign. However, last week she said she is “proud” to have recently competed in the finals of Miss Sovereign GB 2019.

“I thought for a while he had ruined my life,” she said.