Description
A stalker who hacked into a 14-year-old girl's social media accounts and shared explicit pictures of her has been jailed for five-and-a half years.
Craig Fletcher, 40, an IT expert from Meir, Staffordshire, became obsessed with the young girl's every move and even threatened extreme violence against any male friends of hers.
He was sentenced today after admitting two counts of stalking, four counts of sending private photographs without consent and for possessing extreme pornography.
On one occasion the 40-year-old went into a McDonald's restaurant and threatened to break a boy's legs if he went anywhere near the young girl.
On another occasion he pursued a boy in his car.
After the teenage girl entered a relationship, Fletcher would harass the young couple with sexually explicit messages, a court heard.
He would also hack into their accounts to send private photos of them to their friends.
The 40-year-old was arrested in 2017 and police found a large number of extreme pornographic images - featuring animals, sadism and mutilation - on his computer.
Judge Christopher Batty told the defendant: 'You have never provided an explanation as to why you did this.
'But I take the view that it was born out of obsession and nothing else - your campaign caused significant stress to two young people.
'You were able to stop this at any time but you did not. You are now ashamed of what you did but you only have yourself to blame.
'This was not a one-off matter, it was a long course of action over many months.'
The court heard that the 14-year-old girl and her boyfriend were both left feeling suicidal following their ordeal.
Matthew Harding, defending, read out a letter to the court from Fletcher in which he apologised.
He told how he was 'disgusted' with himself and revealed had 'lost everything'.