NSman who accessed ex-girlfriend's social media accounts to stalk her given probation
SINGAPORE — After his girlfriend had broken up with him, a man stalked her by accessing her Facebook and Instagram accounts through passwords saved in his computer while they were dating.
Among other acts, he even impersonated his former girlfriend to catfish another man. This went unnoticed for four years until the 22-year-old woman received a message on her Instagram account that gave the game away.
The man, also 22 and currently serving National Service, was given 21 months probation on Tuesday (14 May).
He was also ordered to complete 180 hours of community service and to keep to a time curfew. His parents were required to place a $5,000 bond to ensure the man's good behaviour.
He had pleaded guilty to eight charges of unauthorised access to computer material and one charge of stalking by impersonation. Another 87 counts of unauthorised access were taken into consideration for his sentencing.
Neither the victim nor the man can be named due to a gag order imposed by the court.
The facts of the case
The pair were in a relationship in 2013. When the couple broke up a year later, the man found that the his former paramour’s social media account passwords were saved in his laptop.
Between 2013 and 6 November 2017, the man illegally accessed the woman's accounts on at least 129 occasions to see who she was conversing with.
In November 2017, the man became interested in another girl who rebuffed his advances as she was in a relationship with another man, named Jedrek.
The man decided to test Jedrek’s faithfulness towards the girl. Using his ex-girlfriend's Facebook account, he added Jedrek as a friend and Jedrek accepted.
As the two chatted, the man, masquerading as his ex, suggested that they have sex and Jedrek agreed. The man dropped the conversation afterwards.
The ex-girlfriend only discovered these conversations when the offences came to light.
On the evening of 5 November 2017, the former girlfriend received a direct message on Instagram. When she read it, she discovered a list of messages that had not been sent by her.
She later realised her Facebook account was also compromised, after discovering that an unknown contact was added to her friends list and later blocked.
She lodged a police report later that day.
Argument by the defence
The man's lawyers Cory Wong and Josephus Tan from Invictus Law said that their client had committed the offences due to the "acrimonious break-up".
"After spending about a year together, (the woman) had decided to abruptly part ways with him due to their purported character or personality differences," said the lawyers.
According to them, the man had not been able to get over the relationship, which was his first.
As the passwords to the social media accounts were already saved in his laptop, the man accessed the accounts to "keep himself abreast of the happenings in the woman's life" as he missed her dearly, said the lawyers.
The man has since moved on emotionally, added the lawyers.
