After a Dunedin woman’s internet relationship broke down, she showed up at the man’s house, called him a ‘‘pedo’’ and pretended to be him on social media.
Judith Anne Lewis, 44, appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday after earlier pleading guilty to posting a harmful digital communication and wilful damage.
The court heard the defendant had been talking to a man online for about two years, but had only met him in person three times.
The man tried to to stop engaging with Lewis, but she threatened if they did not meet face-to-face, she would make allegations about him to the police.
On July 16, the man was at his Dunedin home when Lewis texted him saying she was coming to talk about their relationship ending.
A short time later, the man heard a large bang on his sliding door.
He looked outside and saw Lewis sitting on his doorstep with an empty bottle of wine.
She refused to leave when he asked, so the man threatened to call police.
Lewis became ‘‘enraged’’ and smashed the wine bottle on the ground before punching the victim’s wing mirror, a police summary said.
She then used a piece of the broken wine bottle to etch the words ‘‘why’’ and ‘‘f... you’’ into the man’s car.
Later that month, she posted a photo of the man on Facebook with the caption ‘‘pedo alert’’.
The post also included a link to an account which the defendant had created, posing as the man and posting contact.
She had made multiple similar social media accounts pretending to be the man, the court heard.
In a statement to the court, the victim said he continued to feel distressed, anxious and was bullied online.
Judge David Robinson was concerned by Lewis’s attitude to her offending.
‘‘You don’t seem to think that this is serious,’’ he said.
‘‘You don’t take any particular responsibility for what you’ve done.’’
He said she had thumbed her nose at the court by posting and commenting about the victim online the night before her sentencing, in breach of her bail conditions.
‘‘Your conduct last night had me very seriously thinking about locking you up,’’ Judge Robinson said.
But instead, he sentenced Lewis to 100 hours’ community work, 12 months’ supervision and ordered her to pay reparation of $1500.
Judge Robinson also made a protection order in favour of the victim and granted him final name suppression.
‘‘This conduct stops now,’’ the judge told Lewis.
