Psychopathic Tinder stalker Paul Lambert’s obsession with US reporter

PAUL Lambert was shot dead after attempting to murder a woman he was obsessed with, but she wasn’t his first online obsession.

JUST months before Paul Lambert was shot dead by police after attempting to rape and murder a young NSW doctor he had met on Tinder, the psychopathic stalker was arrested over his pursuit of another obsession.

Then going by the name Paul Michael Scales, the smooth-talking 36-year-old established contact with US Fox News reporter, Brittany Ann Keil, in December 2014.

Their relationship began online and continued when Mr Lambert returned to Australia before travelling back to be with the 32-year-old TV personality, but in only weeks Lambert’s behaviour became a source of anxiety for Ms Keil, causing her to cry daily and terrifying her to the point of being unable to eat or sleep.

In a prescient warning, it also led police to caution his “stalking behaviour” indicated a risk of “high lethality in a relationship that leads to murder/suicide”, and warned that Ms Keil was at an increased risk of violence.

Journalist Brittany Ann Keil was stalked by Paul Lambert. Picture: Facebook

Ms Keil and Lambert’s relationship began online while the salesman was travelling in the US with his wife (he didn’t tell Ms Keil he was married), and their online conversations continued over email, Facebook messaging, and Skype, after he returned to Australia.

Statements filed to a Florida court showed that while Ms Keil had initially willingly communicated with Lambert online, she soon told him she did not want to continue their relationship.

Despite Ms Keil telling the Australian she was dating someone else and insisting he didn’t travel to Orlando to see her, he ignored those requests and, in April 2015, arrived blaming her for “leaving his life in Australia”, and telling her he “wanted to see if they could spend three months together and make it work”.

Ms Keil told police she agreed to date him, but “his behaviour was so erratic and unpredictable that after a month she tried to end it”.

Lambert fabricated stories and told Ms Keil lies to try and convince her to stay with him. He invented injuries and conditions, including a terminal brain tumour and a head injury sustained in a hiking accident that he claimed caused him to forget why she no longer wanted to be with him.

Lambert invented deaths around him, telling Ms Lambert that his best friend and father had recently died, and that he had been poisoned and beaten, to elicit sympathy.

When Ms Keil persistently tried to break it off with Lambert, telling him numerous times to stop contacting her and that she wanted him out of her life, he just wouldn’t accept it.

“Paul’s response to that was that a month was not enough and she owed him the entire three months he planned to be in the United States,” a detective wrote in an affidavit appealing for an arrest warrant.

Paul Lambert was arrested and eventually deported over stalking charges. Picture: Facebook

Officers who met with Ms Keil described the shocking effects Lambert’s stalking behaviour had on her.

“Brittany has suffered substantial emotional distress evidenced by crying daily while speaking to me, telling me she can’t breathe, that she’s physically ill, and she’s afraid to leave home,” Detective Teresa Sprague wrote.

The news reporter had accepted police escorts to and from her parking garage into her building, and had difficulty sleeping and eating.

Her career was affected too.

Ms Keil was always afraid her stalker would show up while she was live on location, filming a report and “say something or harm her physically”.

She was constantly afraid that he would show up uninvited to her apartment or place of work “like he has in the past”, police said.

With the help of police, Ms Keil sent an email pleading with Lambert to stop contacting her.

“Paul, please do not contact me anymore through any means,” she wrote.

“Do not call my job, my phones, email me, text me or attempt to reach me through social media. I no longer wish to have any contact with you whatsoever.

“I tried to be a friend because of what you are going through but your irrational and vindictive behaviour has made that impossible.”

But the harassment continued.

Ms Keil had already blocked Lambert from calling her phone, texting, emailing and contacting her on Facebook, but he would create new accounts and continue to harass her.

Ms Keil was ‘terrified’ Lambert would show up while she was reporting on location or at her home or workplace.

In several messages, he claimed to have multiple personality disorder. He once said that he was writing as one of Paul’s “other” personalities, claiming he would protect her from Paul.

“I was hoping not to do this but I feel I must. For you and your sanity,” he wrote.

“Yes, I am Paul. One of 9 personalities. I have all the memories of others and none of the others have mine.”

In the affidavit submitted by police, Detective Sprague expressed what would later seem to be a prescient warning.

“Paul has told her multiple times he is suicidal and a dying man and no longer cares what happens to her or him. These statements are very dangerous and as well as the stalking behaviour,” he wrote.

“These are indicators of high lethality in a dating relationship that leads to murder/suicide. She is also at an increased risk of violence due to his highly unstable emotional state or mental illness.”

Police arrested Lambert in May and charged him with stalking and extortion, which he admitted to. He was eventually deported from the US.

Paul Lambert was shot dead by police.

Lambert attempted to murder Angela Jay at her Port Macquarie home. Picture: Facebook

Mr Lambert’s unstable behaviour continued when he returned to Australia, but was masked by his smooth exterior personality.

Just two months ago he met NSW doctor Angela Jay on Tinder and they began dating, but after Ms Jay told Lambert the relationship was over, he began texting her violent threats.

As the Daily Telegraph reported, Lambert threatened to “throw himself in front of a train” if she didn’t take him back, and used a different phone to call her, pretending to be a friend and saying “Lambert would kill himself and it would be her fault”.

Ms Jay took out an Apprehended Violence Order against Lambert on October 31, but it wasn’t enough to protect her.

Last Thursday Lambert had broken into and waited at Ms Jay’s home where had set the scene for an elaborate and sick rape fantasy that police believed he wanted to end by murdering her and burning down the house.

Ms Jay was stabbed 11 times and doused with petrol before she ran free and sought help from a neighbour. After fleeing the scene and instigating a police pursuit, Lambert was shot dead by police officers whom he had lunged at with a knife.