Stalker who threatened 'intimate' online photo reveal of South Shields woman jailed

A stalker who threatened to release an intimate photo of a woman he met online if she didn't pay him cash has been jailed.

Afzal Miah began a relationship with his victim on the internet but his behaviour soon turned "controlling and demanding."

Newcastle Crown Court heard the woman, who lived in South Shields, South Tyneside, ended up paying him £1,000 to prevent a photograph of her from being distributed on social media.

Paul Cross, prosecuting, said that Miah was already in another relationship by the time he began chatting to the female.

But the court heard the his behaviour changed towards his internet victim by December 2022, around five months after they began talking.

The court heard the defendant forbade her from seeing or speaking to anyone else and demanded she provide him with her mobile phone pin codes.

Mr Cross said: "He received an intimate picture which he threatened to publish online.

"He demanded money from her to prevent the photo from being published and she paid a total of £1,000."

The court heard Miah then sent a number of messages to her from a fake Instagram account in which he threatened to damage her home address and vehicles belonging to her family.

He then attended her place of work but the victim's manager called the police who arrived and later arrested him.

Mr Cross said the female's brother later become aware of the pair's relationship and in March 2023 he was invited to join an internet call with Miah.

Mr Cross said: "He was aware of the relationship she had with the defendant.

"He was invited into a Facetime call by the defendant and was subjected to racial and other abuse directed at him and his sister."

The court Miah, now 24, went on to call him on at least a further three times and threatened to petrol bomb his house.

In an impact statement, the female said: "I have trust issues already and I don't know how I am going to deal with this going forward.

"Prior to meeting Miah I was bubbly and outgoing but I'm now a shadow of my former self.

"I can't believe I told him such personal things. Financially, I will never regain the money I sent him."

Miah, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to stalking involving serious alarm or distress and putting a person in fear if violence by harassment.

He also admitted driving without a licence, failing to provide a specimen for analysis, and having no insurance after he drove to the woman's workplace before his arrest.

Judge Sarah Mallet sentenced Miah to 30 months behind bars but accepted he would be out sooner due to the days spent in custody.

She also imposed a five-year restraining order and banned from the roads for two years and ten months.

Marte Alnaes, defending, told the court she accepted Miah's offending crossed the custodial threshold.