Cyber stalker finally jailed

Thursday 04 March 2010 | By Heidi Scott, Gosh! Media Copywriter

Tags: Facebook, MySpace, Privacy, Security

A man branded one of Britain's most obsessive cyber stalkers by the tabloid press has been jailed for terrorising a female undergraduate for over two years. Jason Smith, from Newall Green, near Wythenshawe, was put behind bars last week after Manchester Magistrates Court heard how he had threatened 20-year-old Alexandra Scarlett and her family through social networking sites.

Smith, 23, had bombarded Miss Scarlett with up to 30 messages a day on her Facebook and MySpace accounts, with threats ranging from slashing her face, to raping her mother and aunt, and shooting her father. He was convicted on Wednesday last week of harassing Miss Scarlett and her mother, Jennifer, and of breaching a restraining order, and will remain in custody until he is sentenced on March 17.

The musician had been handed a lifetime restraining order in November last year, when he was given a 12-month suspended prison sentence. A judge had said he needed treatment for an 'erotic mania' psychological disorder.

However, the court last week heard that, within a week of the restraining order, Smith had once again tracked Miss Scarlett down on her social networking sites and bragged that he had 'got away with' community service.

According to the Daily Mail Online, prosecutor Gareth Brandon, said, "Jason Smith is not and never has been in a relationship with Alexandra Scarlett. They met in a bar and exchanged phone numbers and he has been harassing the family ever since."

Alexandra Scarlett, who gave evidence from behind a screen through fear of the defendant, told the court, "Within about a week or so of him being released and the restraining order, I started getting messages again. I'd had messages for that long I knew the way he writes stuff and I knew that it was him." Smith had told her that it was 'real love' and that they were 'meant to be together'.

In a chilling account that is surely a warning to all social networking users, the court was told how Miss Scarlett had repeatedly shut down her on-line accounts and started new ones, but that Smith had always managed to track them down and begin hounding her again. Even when she blocked him 40 times from having access to her Facebook page, he simply set up new accounts and sent her more terrifying messages.

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