Online feud sparked campaign of harassment and letters to Leeds woman
Innocent woman caught up in online insults
A man who spent years harassing an innocent woman and posting pictures of her children online has been spared immediate custody.
Leeds Crown Court heard that Christopher Mullins had “clear” symptoms of autism, but refused to be screened.
The 39-year-old was found guilty after a trial of stalking, causing serious alarm or distress.
During his recent sentencing hearing, the court was told that Mullins had got into an argument with a man online about content uploaded to the internet.
Mullins had thought it was illegal, so a feud began that lasted more than three years in which they traded insults.
In that time, Mullins, who is from Warwickshire, got hold of the man’s family’s details.
He then began posting pictures online of the man’s sister, who lives in Leeds, and her children.
When the police became involved, they found Mullins’ fingerprints on letters he had sent.
Mullins, of Morse Road, Leamington Spa, denied wrongdoing, but he was convicted by a jury following a five-day trial in March of stalking the woman. He was cleared of stalking her brother.
Mitigating, Derek Duffy said that Mullins was an intelligent man with a masters degree in engineering, but was “socially dysfunctional”.
He said he showed signs of autism spectrum disorder but refused to be tested.
Mullins has no previous convictions with Mr Duffy saying both he and the man he was feuding with online “behaved appallingly” with both “giving as good good as they got”.
Mr Duffy added that Mullins “became obsessed” and the situation got “completely out of control”.
Judge Penelope Belcher called the online spat as “unpleasant” and “quite frankly, childish”.
She handed Mullins a 15-month sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered him to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and 20 rehabilitation days with probation.
A five-year restraining order to stay away from the female was also imposed.