A man was sentenced on Thursday, 31st March, to 5 years imprisonment for charges of harassment and malicious communication on a nationwide scale. He must pay a £2,000 fine directly to the victim, Joseph Uyinmwen, and comply with an indefinite restraining order.
On Thursday, 31st March, Christopher, 24 (20.03.98) – whose surname is not being released for legal reasons – of Stratford, was sentenced at Inner London Crown Court, Holborn, by a jury of his peers for spearheading a malicious harassment campaign on several social media platforms targeted to Joseph Uyinmwen, 25, of Dagenham.
The court heard how, for a period spanning approximately 12 months, the defendant created maliciously false social media posts, websites, and videos with artificially altered images of the victim to create the perception that he was a “serial sex offender”. This led to widespread coverage of the matter, with it reaching friends of the victim and nearly threatening his career.
The defendant led an unrelenting campaign to cause Joseph Uyinmwen alarm, distress, and fear of violence, repeatedly telling him he would “get got” and demonstrating that they were “watching his every move and always will be”, bordering on cyberstalking. There were also instances where the defendant ‘impersonated’ the victim and sent his private photos to strangers, after gaining illegal access to his cloud-based services.
The defendant used highly sophisticated means to anonymise his identity, costing investigators tens of thousands of pounds to monitor the offender and eventually trace him. In court it was strongly suggested he was not alone in his criminality, likely having a group that assisted one another to maximise the campaign against the victim, but these alleged co-conspirators could not be traced and Christopher has never been co-operative.
During the trial, Christopher attempted to argue that he received ‘information’ somebody from Dagenham was involved in criminality, and that he got this information innocently ‘mixed up’ with that of Joseph Uyinmwen, but this was wholly rejected by the court after being comprehensively proven to be untrue. He attempted to challenge the ‘malice’ element of the crime.
The victim is currently applying for further harassment and defamation cases to be launched against others that saw the social media posts and took it upon themselves to further distress him, demonstrating the extent to which Christopher and his associates have impacted his life.
In sentencing, Judge Reed Cavanar said: “For reasons that have never been adequately established, you took it upon yourself to create a highly deceptive, compelling press release whereby you outraged the public with crimes you attributed to the victim.”
“This has changed the victim’s life forever. It is one of the most sinister cases of harassment I have ever presided over. The victim is currently embroiled in other criminal and civil cases that are offspring of the criminality you inflicted upon him.”
“Some members of the public can not necessarily be blamed for how they reacted, as you made it exceptionally difficult for a stranger to objectively differentiate between the legitimate and illegitimate in your communications.”
“The painful details of this case, your unapologetic and uncooperative attitude, and the extensive measures you employed to evade detection mean you must serve a considerable sentence to safeguard the public.”
