The moment she heard the loud crash of metal and the screech of tyres on her drive, Candice Baker knew exactly what had happened. Earlier that evening, she'd locked her front gates, and now her bullying ex-boyfriend had driven his car straight through them.

Terrified, she crept to her front door and opened it. Outside, his face contorted with rage, stood her ex, Stuart Moran.

"He said: ‘I can get into this house if I want to, and you won't know until you wake up and find me sitting on your bed.' I felt sick with fear," recalls Candice, 37.

It was the latest episode in a six-year campaign of harassment, which was to see Candice standing trial on drugs charges before she was finally found innocent, while Moran, 35, was sentenced to six years in prison.

It was the last thing Candice, a finance manager from Great Yarmouth, had expected when she first met Moran in March 2002.

"I was training as an accountant and his car mechanic business was next door to my office," she says. "We got chatting and he started bringing me flowers and hanging around."

Candice, a single mum of two boys and a girl – Steven, 15, Ben, 12, and Jodie, 9, – soon found herself falling for Moran.

"We slept together for the first time a month into our relationship when we went away for a weekend," she remembers.

But on the way home, Moran dropped a bombshell. He announced he was dealing cannabis to help finance his car business until it started to make a profit.

"I was horrified. I didn't want a drug dealer in my children's lives," says Candice. "But he swore it was just a temporary measure. It may sound naive but by this time I was emotionally involved, so I pushed my doubts aside."

But over the next few weeks, Moran revealed more troubling details about his past: he'd been to prison for burglary and boasted that he was an expert at breaking and entering. At this point, Candice tried to end their relationship, but Moran wouldn't let her.

"He would turn up late at night and bang on my front door," she says. "It was clear he had a very bad temper and didn't like to be crossed. I was so scared, I'd let him in. Then we'd sit watching TV, the air fraught with tension. I hoped that if I was grumpy and unpleasant, he'd finish the relationship.

"But instead, he became increasingly obsessed with me. He'd check my emails and wanted to know my every move. It was terrifying but I didn't know what else to do except carry on like we were a normal couple and hope he'd eventually get the message."

In July 2004, Candice found a sexually explicit text message from another girl on Moran's phone, saying she was looking forward to seeing him. Far from feeling jealous, Candice was overjoyed.

"I threw the phone at him and told him I never wanted to see him again," she says.

"I saw it as my chance for freedom. But nothing changed. Stuart continued to come round as though we were still together, except that now he would make threats towards me. He said if I refused to see him, he'd damage my car or cut my phone wires."

On more than one occasion, Candice found her car's tyres slashed in the morning, the paint scratched and the radiator broken.

"I presumed it was him, but the police couldn't do anything as he never left any proof," she says.

"In tears I'd beg him to leave me alone, but he'd just coldly say he loved me."

On one occasion, Candice came home to find Moran had broken into her house and was packaging up small parcels of white powder in her kitchen. She realised it was cocaine and guessed he was dealing in it, and angrily ordered him to leave.

"I couldn't believe he'd brought drugs into my home. He obviously wanted to keep them away from his own place in case he was seen."

Gradually, it seemed Moran finally came to accept that they were no longer a couple – but that didn't stop him tormenting her.

By March 2005, Candice and her children were living in constant fear.

"At night we all lay awake and listened to every creak from the house, terrified it was Stuart breaking in," says Candice.

Their home was vandalised on a number of occasions: windows were smashed, phone lines cut and the garden fence was set on fire. Moran was arrested several times, but there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute him for any offences.

Finally, that July, Candice secured a harassment order against Moran after he threw a metal pipe through her living room window. It stated he must not come within 200 metres of her home or the boys' schools. The police took the threat so seriously they installed alarms and CCTV in her home.

"Still, I couldn't sleep, and would sit up night after night watching the cameras and listening for any disturbance," says Candice.

In September 2005, Moran was charged with harassment and remanded in custody. By then, Candice had made over 28 allegations against him. Later that day she received a text message from him saying: "If this goes to court, you are f****d."

She showed the text to the police and Moran was also charged with witness intimidation.

Then, in April 2006, with Moran still in custody, Candice's son Ben found a Tupperware box in their garden, full of white powder. She immediately called the police, suspecting it was drugs and that they belonged to Moran.

But a week later, to her utter horror, Candice was arrested herself. The police thought she had been part of Moran's drug operation.

"They didn't charge me then, but said I was looking at 10 years in prison if I was found guilty of conspiracy to supply cocaine. That night, I went home and cried myself to sleep. I faced months of waiting to find out whether I'd be charged or not," she recalls.

"Telling my sons that I might go to prison was the hardest thing I've ever done. We all just held each other and cried. I couldn't believe this was happening to us after all we'd been through."

In July, Moran pleaded guilty to harassment and witness intimidation, and was given a nine-month sentence. However, much to Candice's horror, he was released straight away due to the time he'd spent on remand.

The police advised Candice to move house, and Moran was given a lifetime restraining order that prevented him from entering the village she lived in. Even so, the police took the extra precaution of installing fire-and bullet-proof windows at her home. She was the first victim of stalking in this country to benefit from these measures.

But in February last year, Candice was charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine. The court case was in November.

"In court, I had to stand next to Stuart, which was terrifying. I didn't look at him once and thankfully a guard stood between us," she says.

"For the nine days of the trial I barely slept and cried every night. The thought of my children being taken into care made me feel sick."

Candice was found not guilty. Meanwhile, Moran was found guilty of intent to supply £6,000 worth of cocaine and sentenced to six years in prison – although it's likely he'll only serve three years.

"I feel I've been granted a brief reprieve," says Candice. "But I'm terrified that when he's released, he'll seek revenge.

"It's cruel to think that someone I tried to finish with after a few weeks has gone on to make my life such a living hell. I'm having therapy but I still have nightmares, and I can't trust men any more."

Have you ever been stalked? How did it affect your life? Did you report it?

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PHOTOGRAPHY: SYRIOL JONES HAIR & MAKE-UP: CAROLINE PIASECKI AT TIME AGENCY