Thurman Shaken During Stalker Trial

Actor Uma Thurman went face-to-face with her stalker today, telling a New York court that the man who had followed her for two years had sickened and terrified her.

"I was completely freaked out. It was like a nightmare. It was scary," she said, referring to the behavior of Jack Jordan, a University of Chicago graduate who had sent her love notes.

Jordan is charged with stalking and harassment and could face up to a year in jail. He stalked the star of films such as Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction in the period from early 2005 until his arrest in October 2007.

Thurman was visibly shaken during her testimony. Her hand shook as she held up a card that the defendant sent her at a film set in Manhattan, which read: "My hands should be on your body at all times."

The actor said that after she got the card, she contacted her parents in upstate New York who said they had also been contacted by Jordan.

"I felt a stone drop in my stomach... The idea that this had a history made it even more terrifying," she said.

In three days of hearings, the court learnt that Jordan, 37, has received treatment for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. His lawyer, George Vomvolakis, argued that he should be in treatment, not in jail.

In opening statements, Vomvolakis said the defendant "does not think the way you and I think. He doesn't know the boundaries you and I know. He thinks it's romantic."

The prosecution told the court that he tried to contact the actor for more than two years, showing up at her trailer on the set of My Super Ex-Girlfriend, and sitting on the steps of her Greenwich Village home where she lives with her two children.

At one point he sent Thurman's family an email saying: "I will kill myself if I do not get to see Uma Thurman within 24 to 48 hours."

Reuters reported that as Thurman testified, Jordan occasionally glanced at her. She did not look at him. Jordan remains free on $10,000 (£5,000) bail.

In earlier testimony, Thurman's mother, Brigitte, told the court that she had first talked to the stalker in 2005 when he called her home in Woodstock. He said that he and the actor "had a predestination to be together".

The court heard Jordan sent several emails to Thurman's father in April 2005 in which he said Thurman's two young children did not exist and also mentioned a biblical passage where God tells Abraham to kill his son Isaac.

"I don't think any mother or parent would want any stranger to fixate on their children and to fixate on them not existing, that was terrifying for me," Thurman said.