A 'frightened' woman barricaded a door to stop a senior NHS manager getting into her office, a court heard.

Joanne O'Neill told King's Lynn Crown Court that she blocked the door with boxes - and felt Karl Perryman had an 'unhealthy interest' in her.

Mr Perryman, 52, was head of complaints and legal services at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn, where Ms O'Neill was a junior colleague.

The court also heard that Perryman - who is charged with stalking and intimidating a witness - sent poison pen letters to Mr O'Neill after she spurned him, and would boast about his sexual prowess and eavesdrop on her conversations.

The eight letters, which began in December 2012, were also sent to other managers along with Ms O'Neill's then partner and her mother. They accused her of dressing 'like a hooker', and 'sleeping her way to the top'.

The letters began when Ms O'Neill began a relationship with the hospital's deputy director of ICT Michael Brown, who she has since married. They purported to be from an anonymous Christian woman who wanted to put a stop to her conduct.

But they were traced to Perryman who had earlier secured Ms O'Neill a job after allegedly becoming infatuated with her at a job interview, prosecutors told the court.

Ms O'Neill, who worked as complaints manager, said: 'I would be called into his office with him boasting about his conquests, how important he was and how powerful he was.'

Asked by Susannah Stevens, cross examining, how he knew so much about her, she said she had never shared personal information with him, but knew he had access to her personal file and medical records.

'I believe he overhead conversations with my female colleagues and then passed comments about that,' she added.

Ms O'Neill claimed Perryman, from King's Lynn, offered her presents from high street jewellers Ernest Jones.

She told the court that he reacted with 'bravado' when told his behaviour may come out.

'He said nobody would believe me and if I told anybody he'd deny it and that he was cleverer than me,' Ms O'Neill said.

Opening the case, prosecutor Jude Durr said the letters all concerned 'rank, status, sex, lying, cheating, flirting, dressing inappropriately and reaping what you sow'.

He added: 'She felt genuinely frightened that she was being watched every time she attended a meeting or saw a colleague in the corridor. It was also affecting her home life.

'She didn't at that stage have any idea who could be so vindictive and hateful.

'The invasion of her personal, professional and private life caused a real devastating fear of escalation.'

The trial continues.