AN ‘OBSESSED’ former partner who set up fake dating profiles in his victim’s name has been handed a suspended prison sentence.
Mark Bew, 40, phoned his ex-partner more than 100 times in one day and gave her number to strangers on an online dating app, Workington Magistrates’ Court was told.
Outlining the case, prosecutor Pamela Fee said Bew and his former partner had separated in April 2023 and the victim realised ‘how obsessed’ Bew was after leaving their home in May last year.
In August 2023, police became involved but ‘things calmed down again’ for a while. However, in December last year, the victim was receiving ‘constant’ phone calls from Bew.
She changed her number but Bew got her new number from their children’s phones. She said sometimes her phone was unusable because she was getting so many calls.
Just before Christmas, she ‘tried to have a normal conversation’ with Bew about Christmas presents but he ‘just blew up’.
In February this year, she received 111 missed calls from Bew. She told police her call logs only went back until January ‘probably because she had so many missed calls’.
She then started receiving messages from a man called ‘Trev Jones’ who she later discovered was Bew. The account also messaged her mother.
The victim received messages from a man who got her details from a dating app, which she had never used.
She told police she ‘couldn’t cope’ with the upset caused by Bew anymore and it was ‘alarming how obsessed he was’.
She said his actions were impacting her and ‘no reasonable person’ would contact someone 100 times a day. She said she felt like Bew was ‘still trying to control her’ and she was worried he would turn up at her door.
The victim was concerned that ‘strange men’ would think she had been talking to them online while she was walking down the street.
Bew was interviewed by police and said sometimes he would call repeatedly to get on the victim’s nerves. He said he was ‘normally told to f*** off’.
When police told Bew they would be downloading the contents of his phone, he admitted he had set up dating profiles in the victim’s name, ‘because he was angry’ and he had given out her number.
Bew, who was not legally represented, told the court: “I just want to carry on with my life. I don’t want to go to prison. I have kept all my bail conditions.
“I have been stupid. It was ridiculous, really. I was a bit obsessed.
“I have served my country. I’ve never been in trouble.”
Bew, of Melbreak Avenue, Maryport, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to harassment without violence.
Passing sentence, Mark Gear, chair of the magistrates’ panel, said: “We have got to take into account the effect it has had on the victim.
“Coming into a room and saying sorry afterwards is not good enough.”
Bew was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison, suspended for 24 months. He was given a two-year community order with 10 rehabilitation activity requirement days and a 30-day accredited programme.
A three-year restraining order was imposed which bans the defendant from contacting the victim by any means or going to a named address.
Bew must pay £85 costs and a £154 victim surcharge.
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