Ghumman bombarded the attractive blonde with emails, telephone calls and SMS
text messages, and was eventually convicted, in October 2010, of harassment
at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
He appealed and, in an attempt to prevent Miss Rhind’s father giving evidence
at his appeal hearing, launched his attempted murder plot.
Prosecutor Billy Downer revealed that Ghumman had previously received a police
caution for harassing another 24-year-old woman in London.
He said his harassment of Ms Rhind and her family had been “brutal, cruel
and cowardly” as well as “morally repugnant and served to satisfy
the accused’s selfish needs.”
“It is only by the greatest good fortune that the Rhinds were not burned
to death, as the accused intended”, he added.
Judge Herman Pieters on Thursday sentenced him to a nine years jail term, to
be served in South Africa. Taking into account his time on remand and parole
laws, he could be released in three.
Speaking outside court on Thursday, Ms Rhind’s father described his ordeal as
a “nightmare”.