Gwyneth Paltrow

A man charged with stalking Gwyneth Paltrow told jurors that he kept writing to the actress in recent years because he wanted her forgiveness for sending her provocative messages nearly 17 years ago.

Dante Soiu was one of the final witnesses at his four-day trial focusing on packages and letters — some of which expressed his desire to marry Paltrow — sent in 2014 and 2015.

Soiu, 66, testified that he never intended to scare Paltrow or physically harm her.

“I have no desire to hurt her feelings,” Soiu said. “I have no desire to harass her.”

A prosecutor however urged jurors to disregard his statements and instead view Soiu as a calculating, crazy stalker who would never stop harassing Paltrow. “It’s a compulsion and an obsession to insert himself into her life,” Deputy District Attorney Wendy Segall said in closing arguments.

She told jurors that the case actually got Soiu what he wanted — to spend time with Paltrow, who testified against him on Monday.

“He gets to spend hours in a room with the object of his desire,” Segall said. “This is not a stupid man. This is actually a highly intelligent man.”

Soiu told jurors that he was lonely and wanted a pen pal and kept writing to the Oscar winner despite the previous stalking case involving the actress that led to him being sent to a mental institution for several years.

Prosecutors say Soiu sent 66 messages to Paltrow between 2009 and 2015 before he was arrested.

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