The court heard the Instagram message stated: “Watch your back, you dweeb” and there was an Emoji of a knife “coming for you”.
The case was heard at Belfast Crown Court(Image: Justin Kernoghan)
A Belfast man who set up a fake Instagram account in the name of an ex-girlfriend and claimed she was using it to harass him was today jailed for 19 months.
Judge Gordon Kerr KC said Ezra Garfield would spend a further 19 months on supervised licence on his release from prison. The 25-year-old, now of Park Street in Liverpool, had previously pleaded guilty to charges of perverting the course of justice and harassment.
Belfast Crown Court heard the offences were committed on dates between December 15, 2020 and June 16, 2021.
A prosecution barrister said Garfield contacted police on December 16, 2020, and said his ex-girlfriend was harassing him, she had called him 17 times and had sent him a threatening Instagram message. The following day he contacted police again and said he had received a further Instagram message.
Police attended his home at Great Patrick Street in Belfast and he reported his ex-girlfriend was harassing him and produced a printed image from an Instagram account along with phone records as alleged evidence of the harassment.
The court heard the Instagram message stated: “Watch your back, you dweeb” and there was an Emoji of a knife “coming for you”.
“On December 18, he contacted police for a third time and said the messages were causing him distress,” said the prosecutor.
“He said the missed calls from her were giving him panic attacks. He said he wanted the calls to stop and for his ex-girlfriend to leave him alone and stop harassing him for no reason.”
Garfield refused to hand over his phone to police for examination, saying he needed it but provided print outs of the messages.
The lawyer said police attended the home of his girlfriend on December 18 and arrested her on suspicion of harassment. She was taken to Musgrave Police Station and her phone was seized for examination. She was interviewed under caution and denied the allegations, saying Garfield had made it all up before she was bailed.
The prosecutor said police contacted Garfield the following day and he denied faking the calls. The victim attended with police on February 13, 2021, and provided officers with a statement after she had found an Instagram account which closely resembled her real profile.
She said the fake account used a profile picture of her and her cousin along with her biography which she used on her real Instagram account.
“Police then requested cyber support to investigate this fake account. Cyber support reported back that there was no evidence from her phone to indicate she had been calling Garfield.”
On March 16, 2021, police received information about the fake Instagram account which showed the messages were doctored and fabricated by the defendant.
In June 2021, Garfield attended Musgrave Police Station and stated he had no contact with the fake Instagram account. Asked if he set up the fake account, Garfield replied ‘yes’ but said he didn’t remember much from that time because his mental health was poor.
He said he never meant to cause his ex-girlfriend any harassment but he accepted why she would have felt harassed.
Garfield said he couldn’t remember making the phone calls to his victim using a fake calling app, adding: “There could be a chance. I will take responsibility.”
He told police that he set up the fake Instagram account to send messages to himself but then edited the messages to make it look like his ex-girlfriend had sent them to him.
His phone was examined and it revealed he had used a fake caller application to make repeated calls to his victim.
The court heard Garfield had previously been convicted of harassing his ex-girlfriend and in February 2022 he received a 30-month sentence at Manchester Crown Court for similar behaviour to a different victim.
Describing it as a “bad case”, Judge Kerr said it was clear from a victim impact statement that Garfield’s “criminal behaviour had caused the victim extreme distress which came at a time in her life when she should have been concentrating on her studies”.
“She was treated as a criminal at times. This incident took over her life. It has continued to affect her years later and no doubt will continue to do so,” said Judge Kerr.
“No one can ever return to her the years she has lost by this defendant’s malice and abuse. The victim’s life has been adversely affected by the defendant’s criminal conduct.”
Garfield was made the subject of a restraining order which will remain in place “until further order”.
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