A man, who previously lived in Havant, has been convicted of stalking a social media influencer, involving fear of violence, after he harassed a woman online and travelled to Bali to try to locate her.
A man, who previously lived in Havant, has been convicted of stalking a social media influencer, involving fear of violence, after he harassed a woman online and travelled to Bali to try to locate her.
Rob Keating, who is 39, of Old Crawley Road in Horsham, was found guilty of two offences of stalking involving fear of violence, following a seven-day trial at Portsmouth Crown Court.
The court heard how Keating had begun contacting a woman who works as a travel influencer on social media, via Instagram in June 2022, but the two had never met in person.
The messages Keating sent were constant and so concerning in nature that the woman blocked him on the platform, hoping that this would make him stop.
However, after being blocked on Instagram, Keating then started to contact the woman via her personal email address, despite having never been given her details.
Keating continued his constant harassment and would send screenshots of various things the woman had posted on her Instagram, demonstrating that he was accessing her account from other secret accounts.
The woman reported that over a six-month period, she received hundreds of emails and 30 videos from Keating.
In December 2022, she received an email from Keating in which he threatened to kidnap her and sent links to videos he had made further threatening to kidnap and rape her. He also sent her a photo of a body in a suitcase, alongside videos of him threatening to do the same to her.
Keating threatened to travel to Bali, Indonesia where the woman lives to kidnap her and began sending her evidence that he had obtained flight tickets and a visa to Indonesia.
This then escalated into sending photos from locations in Bali that she frequented, as well as from locations near to her address.
After the woman’s friends saw Keating in person close to her address, the woman fled to a friend’s address and contacted local police, before later leaving the country fearing for her safety.
On Monday 6 March 2023, Keating was arrested at Gatwick Airport on suspicion of stalking. However, more than a year later while he remained under investigation he contacted the woman again and posted to his own Instagram account a video about the woman, as well as screenshots of flights to Bali with the caption ‘Round Two’.
Keating was further arrested on suspicion of stalking on Monday 11 November 2024 and was charged and remanded into custody the following day.
At Portsmouth Crown Court, a jury found Keating guilty of two stalking involving fear of violence offences.
Keating was remanded into custody and is due to appear at the same court for sentencing on Friday, the 25th of July.
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