Sentenced: Dagenham man who stalked Tower Hamlets woman he met on website for Catholic singles
Livio Orofino stalked his victim online for five months. Pic: PA - Credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images
A Dagenham man who stalked a woman he met on a website for Catholic singles after going on four dates with her has been given a suspended jail sentence.
Thames Magistrates’ Court heard Livio Orofino, 24, sent his victim hundreds of messages through Facebook using different accounts and told her “Ignore me but I won’t stop” during his five-month stalking campaign.
The pair had met through after matching online on catholicmatch.com in August last year but after four dates the victim decided she did not want to pursue the relationship any further.
The court heard Orofino, a Cambridge University graduate who is an Italian national, refused to take no for an answer and continued to send the victim WhatsApp text messages.
When she blocked him he turned to Facebook.
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In one message he said: “I think God sent you in my life to make me a better person and stop me from sinning.”
In other messages he told the victim she should date him or risk getting old and still being single. He added: “You can’t just pretend I don’t exist”.
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He also messaged the victim’s friends and family, and turned up outside her home and workplace in Tower Hamlets.
Today he was sentenced to 26 weeks in prison suspended for two years for one count of stalking involving serious alarm or distress after being convicted last month.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) also successfully applied for a restraining order banning Orofino from contacting the victim or attending her home or workplace for five years.
Carl Barker, from the CPS, said: “Continuously contacting someone who does not want to be contacted is stalking and therefore a criminal offence.
“In this case, the victim made make it clear to Orofino that she did not want to be contacted by him. She told him to leave her alone and blocked him on all means of contact. But he still did not accept this and continued to pursue her, even physically showing up at her home and workplace. This was distressing for the victim.
“I hope this conviction and the restraining order granted today provides the victim with some comfort and gives other victims the confidence to come forward and report their stalkers to the police.”
