Obsessed stalker faked photos of victim on sex sites
An obsessed accountant preyed on a woman by bombarding lewd websites with fake profiles containing photos of her and details of where she worked, a judge heard.
Warped 56-year-old John Smith put the profiles on Fab Swingers and Fab Flirts and got a kick from pretending to be the woman while swapping intimate messages with other users of the websites. The profiles falsely claimed she was bisexual and encouraged people to come up and say 'hello,' Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
As a result the horrified victim was approached by a string of strangers at the supermarket where she was employed, revealed Mr Oliver Woolhouse, prosecuting.
One fake profile described the victim – now in her 30s – as a 'submissive slut' while others claimed she was 'looking for lots of fun' and 'sweet not innocent.'
They showed pictures of her taken from other sites alongside bogus pornographic photos mocked up by Smith.
The couple met at a party 10 years ago, and swapped occasional emails in which he became increasingly familiar, prompting her to block him from her Facebook.
Smith continued to trawl the internet for up-to-date information about her life and used it to create and update the fake profiles that started on MSN Messenger, Google and dating website Tagged.
He later switched to sexual contact sites, leading to her first approached at work by a stranger in September 2013. "He had clearly obtained details about her profile online because the stranger asked if the word Fab meant anything to her," observed Mr Woolhouse.
In April 2014 another stranger came up to her at the supermarket and claimed to have been chatting to her online the previous evening. It had been Smith. Police launched an investigation and arrested Smith four months later.
He had found 'unusual gratification from living out the fantasy of being this lady' after losing both his marriage and job, said Mr Thomas McGarvey, defending.
The defendant from Cumberland Road, Bilston, who had no previous convictions, admitted stalking between November 2012 and August 2014 and was told by Judge John Wait: "You created a pornographic image of this woman in a way that would make people think it was she who wanted to present herself in that way."
Smith received a three-year community sentence under supervision and must complete a community sex offender group work programme. He was also given 240 hours unpaid work with £1200 costs and banned from any contact with her for five years.
