By FARRAH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
A MAN who harassed a woman by bombarding her with messages on social media was placed on six months’ probation yesterday.
Police say Gerad Butler, 28, misused a telecommunications system by using Facebook and Instagram to repeatedly send messages to a woman he knew sometime between July and August of this year.
The accused admitted to the offence during a hearing before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes yesterday.
The court was told that Butler started coming to the complainant’s workplace to harass her and tell her he loved her.
The prosecution said when the woman reported his actions to the police, the accused stopped coming to her work place, but proceeded to make a Facebook account which he used to send “I love you” messages to her repeatedly. The court was told officers were able to track the IP address of the social media account back to Butler. He was subsequently arrested. In an interview with police at a nearby station, he admitted to the offence and said he created the fake accounts to send messages to the woman.
During the hearing, Butler told the magistrate that he only harassed the complainant because she had “led” him on. He claimed one minute the woman was interested and the next time, she was not.
In response, Magistrate Forbes told the accused that he should not engage with a person who appeared to be erratic. He also told Butler if he saw he was receiving mixed signals, he should have moved on. As a result, he placed the accused on probation for six months and banned him from contacting the complainant physically or digitally.
Magistrate Forbes warned Butler that if he failed to comply with the conditions of his release, he would be sentenced to three months behind bars.
Commenting has been disabled for this item.