Friday, January 31, 2025 - An obsessed ex-husband has been jailed after he was caught watching his former wife's videos on TikTok.
According to Mail Online, Paul Belton stalked his former
wife of 18 years, Amy, since their split in 2021 to the point where he was made
the subject of a Stalking Protection Order.
This banned him from communicating with her in any way,
including looking at her social media accounts.
However, the stalker couldn't stop and in August last year,
he watched videos which she had posted on her TikTok account.
The setting on her account meant that Amy, 37, from
Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, received a notification from the platform to
tell her Belton had viewed her content and he was arrested.
Sentencing Belton at Teesside Magistrates Court for 32 weeks
on Thursday, District Judge Marie Mallon said it was not the way he had
contacted his ex-wife that was important.
She said: 'I can't stress enough, you are subject to this
order for a long time and failure to comply will result in a longer sentence.
'It is not down to the nature of the contact, it's the fact
that you continue to contact her and the psychological impact of that contact
on her. You must cease all contact.'
Tokeer Amin, mitigating, said her client 'fully accepts the
court's findings'.
After the hearing, the mum-of-four said that Belton had
methodically gone through each of her TikTok videos.
She said: 'The fact he has been jailed gives me a few weeks
of freedom from him. I hope it gives him time to reflect and not carry on with
his behaviour.
'The psychological impact is the worst part, not knowing
when he is going to contact me or if he's going to turn up. It makes me want to
seclude myself away.
'He needs to realise he cannot get away with it and he'll go
to jail if he doesn't leave me alone.
'Since he's been in prison on remand leading up to the case
I have been able to live my life like a regular person without looking over my
shoulder.
'I hope the time in jail will see him change. He's not the man I married all those years ago and he's not the man I met all those years ago.'
Belton was prosecuted by Cleveland Police, which has the
second-highest stalking rate in England and Wales by head of population.
Assistant Chief Constable Richard Baker said the force is
determined to tackle the rising tide of cyberstalking.
He said: 'Cyber and digital stalking is on the increase all
the time, people are now able to stalk individuals they don't even know.
'In this case, they had been married for 18 years before
they separated but it can be done remotely from anywhere in the world using
digital devices.
'We are seeing more and more of this playing out in our
communities.
'The message we want to send out is 'we will be proactive,
we will arrest you, we will take action.'
He warned offenders not to fool themselves into believing
social media stalking is a minor offence.
Mr Baker added: 'Do not think this is a low-level way of
traumatising or tormenting an ex-partner, that it is somehow humorous.
'It causes significant mental and psychological trauma to
victims, it ruins their day-to-day lives and it is an incredibly intrusive type
of offending.'
0 Comments