Stalker's ploy to 'destroy' man's life with fake social media accounts
04.02.2022 - 01:53
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
A stalker set out to "destroy" a man's life by sending various messages to his girlfriend and married women pretending to be him.
Ian, who requested to be referred to by only his first name, told how Annika Sands, 37, made his life a misery after she began stalking him online and waiting outside of the gym he attended.
Sands, from Birkenhead, set up "hundreds" of fake social media accounts which she used to message Ian, his friends and his family, including his mother.
Liverpool Echo reports that it was only after Ian reported Sands to the police that he discovered that she had also made a police statement against him, claiming that he was her boyfriend and he was abusing her.
She later dropped the accusations before making a further police complaint against Ian, claiming that he was threatening to share revenge porn.
But her web of lies started to unravel when police raided her home and seized nine electronic devices, which showed she had been using tracking software to follow Ian's every move.
Sands was handed a five-year Stalking Protection Order on Tuesday, January 25, after police found she had stalked three men and their families.
Now, Ian has spoken out for the first time about how Sands made his life hell in the hope of helping other stalking victims.
Ian first met Sands in a pub in Oxton Village, Birkenhead, in November 2019 when she was on a work night out.
Thinking back to that night, Ian recalls chatting to Sands in the pub before one of her colleagues came up to him and warned "she's a f****** psycho" but he "thought it was a joke" at the time.
After the night out, Sands sent Ian a friend request on Facebook and they got chatting before arranging to meet up.
Ian, 40, said: "She asked whether I wanted to see her