Cyberstalker Pedo jailed for seven years

An obsessed man, Donald Ridley, has been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail after he subjected a 17-year-old girl neighbour to online and offline perverts.

Ridley, 37, befriended the girl - after she had rejected his advances - by showing her how to use the Internet and set up Web sites. However, he then posted personal details, including her address, photos of her and an invitation (seemingly from her) to be raped and abused onto a site bearing her name. He also made sick allegations about the young girl on an Internet site that she freelanced for.

The upshot of this was a constant stream of disturbing emails from perverts - up to 30 a day - as well as some very unwelcome visitors to her house who expected "unbelievably foul sexual services". She was also sent a sperm sample. Eventually, the girl and her mother had to leave their home and set up elsewhere.

Donald's house was raided in December last year after he was named as the supplier of some child porn. There, the police found around 100 child porn pictures as well as the evidence that it was Donald who had posted the allegations against his neighbour. She says she was shocked when she found it who was behind the whole affair.

Judge Samuel Wiggs said what Ridley had done was "repulsive". "Knowing she suffered extreme ill health you sadistically got pleasure from her pain," he told him in court. He pleaded guilty to 25 Internet offences and one charge of possessing and distributing child porn.

The girl in question suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome. She is currently seeing a psychiatrist to get over her fear of answering the door or using a computer. Although she is 18 and can legally be named, she has asked her identity to be kept secret - something that no one seems to have a problem with. ®