A man has been jailed after carrying out a harassment campaign against a former business associate, which included death threats, posting her personal information online and bombarding her daily with messages.
Daniel Newby, 44, of St John’s Drive, Whittingham, Preston, appeared at Preston Crown Court last Friday 21 April, where he was given a 25 month prison sentence for an offence of stalking.
It relates to a campaign of harassment he carried out against a woman, aged in her 50s, from Ramsgate in Kent, between September 2016 and April 2019.
During this period Newby sent the woman approximately 1,200 messages on Twitter, including calling her ‘a junkie’, ‘thief’ and ‘scumbag’.
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He also created a website where he posted pictures of the victim’s face photoshopped onto sexually explicit images, as well as personal details about her, including medical details.
Specifically, he posted that she had previously taken an overdose and to this he had added the caption: “She’s not very good at committing suicide, maybe we can club together and do it for her.”
Newby told police that he had carried out the harassment as he had previously had business dealings with the victim.
PC Adam Lake, of Preston Police, said: “This was a sustained and malicious campaign of harassment which Newby engaged in, knowing it would cause distress and worry for the victim.
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“He posted extremely personal information about her online, including information that referred to past trauma.
“Clearly this is absolutely, unacceptable and we hope this shows that hiding behind a website or username online does not make you any less guilty of a crime.
“Newby has been sentenced to 25 months and we hope he uses this time to reflect on the consequences of his actions.”
The victim of Newby’s offending was in court for the sentencing hearing.
She said: “I would like to thank the investigating officer PC Adam Lake.
“He always approached the investigation with integrity and kindness at all times. Without his understanding of the crime and what Daniel Newby was doing to me, I’m not sure that I would be here today to thank him.
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“I would also like to thank prosecutor Francis McEntee, the witness care team and His Honour Judge Archer for his crystal-clear analysis of Newby’s criminal behaviour and subsequent sentencing.
“Daniel Newby is a cold-hearted and callous stalker. Newby acted as part of a gang who tried to encourage me to end my own life and engaged in an obsessive and callous campaign of hate spanning a period of years.
“Newby created deep-fake sexual images of me engaged in a series of sex acts, he also created fake documents including fake newspaper articles.
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“I would welcome a change to the law that anyone engaged in the making of such images charged with a sexual offence and consequently subjected to the restrictions of a sex offender.
“Newby illegally obtained two corporate domains which he controlled to abuse, stalk and share misinformation. His language was violent and degrading, he discussed how to cause me maximum harm in the hope that I would die by my own hand or incite others to harm me.”
A spokesperson for Preston Police said: “Anybody who feels they are a victim of harassment or malicious communications should report it to us, safe in the knowledge we will take their allegations seriously.”
You can report incidents on 101, online at Lancashire Constabulary website, or in an emergency call 999.
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