A spurned lover has been jailed for taking revenge on his ex-girlfriend by printing and distributing hundreds of fake business cards advertising her “adult services.”
Lee Childs, 46, used his skills as a graphic designer to create the cards with his ex-partner’s face on and put them up in phone boxes and through neighbour’s letterboxes.
The seedy advert featured the victim’s photograph, phone number and address and invited willing people to visit her home for “late night adult-massages.”
The horrified woman, who has not been named, was alerted to the cards when she went to use a phone box near her home in Harrow, north London, and saw her face plastered on the window.
She alerted police who tracked down and arrested Childs at his home in Northampton in December last year.
Over the next few weeks the victim – who is described as a professional businesswoman – received hundreds of unnerving calls and visits to her home from strangers day and night.
The cards – which featured the victims Facebook profile picture – were also posted to the headmistress of the school where her children attended.
At Harrow Crown Court on Friday “vindictive” Childs was caged for five months and given a five month restraining order after pleading guilty to harassment.
He was also convicted of possession of a bladed article in a public place after officers found a 14-inch machete in his car.
Sentencing Judge Graham Arran said: “It is clear he is totally without remorse for what he has done.
“This was a campaign of harassment which caused great distress.
“The harassment is thoroughly unpleasant and has been a campaign of malice and spite against someone who had rejected you.
“I do not know of a harassment case that could be more serious than this.”
Childs also sent emails and tried to contact the victim through social networking sites, despite being asked not to, after she ended their two-year relationship in July 2012.
He set up fake profiles on Facebook using fictitious names in an attempt to contact her.
Childs even called the NSPCC to falsely claim she was a drug user, heavy drinker and unfit to be a mother and claimed she had left the children along and gone on holiday.
He also contacted the Inland Revenue to report concerns regarding her company’s tax payments.
Prosecutor Grace Ong told the court: “What you did with the business cards was extremely offensive and lead to disruption to the victim’s personal and business life.
“You even sent yourself mobile phone reminders to remind yourself to print and distribute the business cards.
“Her pictures were published on the cards which you had taken from her Facebook page.”
After the case Metropolitan Police Detective Constable Janine Stevenson, who led the investigation, said: “This calculated and extremely vindictive campaign of harassment invented by Childs was relentless.
“The victim and her young children were all subjected to many months of worry and fearing for their personal safety.
“I am very pleased to see that justice has now been done and will hopefully be a deterrent to anybody else who decides to embark on this type of spiteful behaviour.”
