Canadian cyberstalker jailed
p2p news / p2pnet: Jonathan Barnes, a Canadian from Alberta who used the Net to stalk his ex-girlfriend, turning her life "upside down," has been sentenced to a year in jail for criminal harrassment.
"Judge Gary Cioni said cyberstalking can be much worse than traditional harassment," says the CBC. "In a case like this, where electronic means are used to attack a person, one wonders where the end of the road is in society today."
Things turned bad two years ago when Barnes installed a keystroke logger on Cari Benson’s computer and from there, accessed her passwords, phone records and e-mail, "and even withdrew her from the college," says the story. "And that was just the start."
"He put my personal information as well as photos of myself on the internet, in chatrooms, and I would get calls from these people, and they would come to my work and say, ‘You asked me to come by, we were chatting earlier’," Benson is quoted as saying.
"I basically changed every aspect of my life, so he couldn’t find me anymore. I moved, I got a new phone number, I got a new job, I changed my social insurance numbers and I went to a different school."
Also See:
CBC – Cyberstalker sentenced to one year, March 16, 2006
March 17th, 2006 at 7:24 pm
Good to see technological abusers in jail, that is where they should belong when they use technology as a means to hurt somebody. But I would also like to point out that a lot supposed “harassment charges have been fake before, or just simply ignorant. The reason being is that some don’t see where sexual harassment is and others simply abuse the power. I hate that. Several years ago, my friend had an incident with the police where the girl same age as him, who was going to the same college as him filled several times sexual harassment charges against him. Of course, he done nothing wrong except say hello to her, and she pretty much flipped out. She wanted him arrested. It got to such an extent and hatred within her, that she had begun to spoof evidence that he was tracing her IMs and was attacking her on there. I simply hate when people use technology to hurt someone for no reason or at least a stupid reason.
March 17th, 2006 at 8:08 pm
A former Nova Scotia teacher can molest children and get house arrest, a cyberstalker who has no physical contact gets a year in jail……hmmmm, yep that’s the Canadian Justice System at work allright. Should this guy get a year in jail? Absolutely, the teacher should be in jail alot longer.
March 17th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
Be glad you’re not VIOLATING !!!!! copyright in the US.
March 17th, 2006 at 11:27 pm
I know this guy and can say that he has done similar acts before. He is a loose cannon and deserves some time to think about his actions. Glad to see JB got his just desserts…
March 21st, 2006 at 10:06 pm
I know JB too, a loose cannon for sure, I just hope he’s not tracking this comment!