A Manchester online-dating thug who threatened to rape and kill women and their families in a cyber-stalking campaign spanning six years has been detained in a psychiatric hospital.
Oddball Jason Smith, 28, was arrested after terrorising against two victims he met online, one through a dating website and one through Facebook,
One of the women was called 300 times a day as Smith convinced himself she loved him.
When she refused to meet him face-to-face, Smith sent menacing text messages threatening to hurt the woman’s family and friends saying he was, ”round the corner,” and that she should, ”come to the window.”
One text message said: ”Bricks going to go through your window in about two minutes, if you don’t wake up going to smash – watch, you fucked my head up.”
Another said: ”I’m going to take off your rose head. I’m going to smash in your head myself and going to love it.”
Smith, of Newall Green, near Wythenshawe also created fake Facebook accounts in the name of the woman and posted spiteful status updates about her mother.
A friend of the woman was also called 200 times in one night when Smith got hold of her number. He said he would rape and kill her and kill her family.
Police discovered musician Smith had previously been convicted of hounding a third woman between 2007 and 2009 with up to 30 threatening messages a day on her Facebook and MySpace pages when she rejected his advances.
During that terror campaign he vowed to slash the victim’s face and warned he would rape her mother and aunt and also threatened to shoot her father.
Last Friday at Manchester Crown Court, Smith, was made subject of an order under the Mental Health Act after claims he suffered from, ‘erotomania’ syndrome – a delusional condition in which people are wrongly convinced someone is in love with them.
As he was led away to he shouted from the dock: ”Put it in the news, put it on YouTube, tell your boss, this is going to be shocking, just you wait.”
But one of his victims Beth O’Connor, 21, said: ”I think he is dangerous man who is capable of anything. He said he was going to rape me and if he didn’t, someone else was going to do it instead.
“After what happened, I’ve even been terrified to walk down the road and I am constantly looking over my shoulder because I think he is there lurking nearby.
”He’s even been walking around our neighbourhood with a picture of me. He was talking about bringing a gun and shooting me. This man is not safe to be around women. He was obsessed – this man should be in prison.”
In a victim impact statement the other victim Sarah Brett, also 21, said: “Being on the receiving end of this is ruining my life and I live constantly in fear that he is going to cause me some harm.
”Someone fitting his description has been asking about me in bars and the thought of this terrifies me.”
Earlier the court was told how Smith initially made contact with Sarah in March last year after he sent her a message through the dating website, Plenty of Fish.
Prosecuting Miss Holly Holden said: ”Although she didn’t actually meet him they did make a vague arrangement to meet but she changed her mind. She accepted him as a friend on Facebook as she didn’t see any reason not to.
”But on his Facebook she noted that he only had one female friend. They exchanged telephone numbers but he told her how he had lost money gambling and was reassuring himself that she was not seeing anyone.
”She found it worrying as they were not in a relationship. She said she found it quite creepy. He phoned her 300 times a day. Sometimes she would go to bed and wake to hundreds of calls by him from his mobile and landline.
”Her mobile phone would ring constantly, her male friends would sometimes answer to try and ward him off. Sometimes she would reply to the messages to say they were not in a relationship. She thought he was deluded to think they were in a relationship.”
Miss Brett called police but decided not to make a statement at first for fear of ‘burdening’ her family. She changed her number after Smith sent her 236 threatening text messages.
But Smith got hold of Beth’s number instead and began sending her similar messages. Initially he called saying: “Where’s Sarah,” and later texted saying: “let me do yah Sarah.”
When Beth said: “It’s not Sarah,” he replied: “I know it’s Beth, Sarah is in London.” He said if she didn’t get Sarah to call him he would keep texting. He sent 184 messages and 200 missed calls.
Later Smith sent Beth a message saying: “I’m going to get someone to do ya – answer your phone now.” One message said: “I love Sarah and she loves me,”
When Smith was arrested he accepted some texts were threatening and that he was trying to scare the victims but added: ”All these women – they are all fucked up man.”
Smith admitted harassment and was given a 28-day interim hospital order after Judge Andrew Blake was told a bed had become available at Prestwich psychiatric hospital.
At an earlier hearing defence lawyer Ben Lawrence, argued there was an ‘unusual’ background and added: “It does seem there’s some underlying psychiatric condition causing this offending.”
The court heard Smith had previously received a suspended jail sentence in 2009 and then a community order when he offended again.
In 2009 a court heard how one woman, who had given Smith her phone number after meeting him in a nightclub in Manchester, repeatedly shut down her accounts and opened up new ones – but he would track them down and hound her again.
She tried to block his Facebook page 40 times but he set up new ones and posted further terrifying messages. He also set up a social networking account posing as footballer Fernando Torres.
Image courtesy of Clint Hamada, with thanks.
