A MAN created numerous social media accounts to harass and stalk a woman he never met, a Bendigo court has heard.
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Ashley Jake Ricardo, 43, was sentenced in the Bendigo Magistrates' Court last week after he pleaded guilty to 17 charges including using a carriage service to harass and stalking.
Documents released to the Bendigo Advertiser said in September 2019, Ricardo sent the woman a friend request on Facebook before sending her several messages.
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The woman declined the request and initially ignored the messages.
After a week of receiving messages from Ricardo, the woman blocked his Facebook account so he could not contact her.
A month later, Ricardo created a new account and tried to contact the woman again.
She messaged Ricardo back, telling him she did not want to receive his messages before blocking his account again.
Ricardo proceeded to create at least another seven Facebook accounts to harass the woman.
The court documents said the woman repeatedly told Ricardo to stop contacting her and blocked his various accounts.
In July last year, the messages became more insistent. Ricardo told the woman that he loved her and that he would look after her and her children.
On August 8, the woman received a message from Ricardo saying that he would come to her town to find her.
He used a further eight accounts to send the woman thousands of messages, including screenshots of her own account.
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The woman reported the offending to police and an interim personal safety intervention order was issued on August 13 with the victim listed as the protected person.
Ricardo breached the order by continuing to send a large number of messages to the woman from his various Facebook accounts.
Police arrested Ricardo on September 9 last year and searched his home.
They found two mobile phones, which contained numerous images of the victim and screenshots of her social media accounts.
During his record of police interview, Ricardo was unremorseful and did not show insight for his actions.
A victim impact statement was read to the court, which said the woman still felt anxious and was scared for her safety as a result of the offending.
Defence lawyer Deniz Yildirim told the court Ricardo was already sentenced to a community corrections order for some of the charges related to this period of offending.
Mr Yildirim submitted that Ricardo had since shown remorse for his crimes and had entered an early guilty plea.
The defence lawyer said given Ricardo had already spent 54 days in custody, an appropriate sentence would be time served.
Magistrate Megan Aumair agreed that Ricardo should not spend more time in jail.
She convicted and sentenced Ricardo to 54 days in prison, which were reckoned as already served.
If Ricardo did not plead guilty, he would have been jailed for six months.
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