He terrorised his former girlfriend by threatening to blackmail her by posting a picture of her on Facebook.
Kian Moradi, 27, stalked his victim and sent her a video of him appearing to brandish a firearm and kept watch on her near her place of work in Birmingham. Trainee engineer Moradi, of Swarthmore Road, Selly Oak, previously admitted a charge of stalking and was sentenced to 27 months in jail.
He was also given an indefinite ban on contacting the victim, who he had targeted over two months.
The woman and Moradi made contact via social media and Instagram and met at Star City and then went on for a second date at the cinema.
But things started to change when the victim mentioned she had been in a previous relationship and Moradi started to make threats towards her former partner.
He also started to quiz her about friends she had on social media, wanting to know who they were.
The woman also became aware that when he rang her he was drunk and “alarm bells were starting to ring,” said Christpher Lester, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court.
She tried to block his number, but he continued to telephone her from a total of 16 withheld numbers. Moradi went on to create different Instagram accounts to contact her on social media as well.
However, she decided to give him a chance and they met on October 8 last year but she finished the meeting after realising he was drunk and he continued to contact her.
Mr Lester said Moradi then tried to blackmail her into meeting him by threatening to send a picture of her in her underwear she had taken during the early part of their relationship, to her friends and family, linked to her Facebook account.
He said the defendant would also “hang around” outside the offices where she worked texting her to say he was there as well as sending the picture of him apparently holding a weapon.
A friend of the defendant’s had also sent her a picture of her road sign to make it appear he was near to her home with a message that she had “better come out and speak to him.”
Moradi also posted pictures to the victim of blood and slit wrists and a video of himself saying “see what happens.”
In a victim statement the woman said that when Moradi kept turning up it was “really scary” and that she feared looking out of her window.
In passing sentence Judge Avik Mukherjee said Moradi had “terrorised” the victim and went on “It was initially harmless but quickly deteriorated into abusive and threatening behaviour. You caused huge amounts of distress to her.
“She encouraged you on more than one occasion, but you abused that trust she had placed in you and you showed her the dark side to your personality.”
Richard Paton-Philip, defending, said Moradi was immature and had never had a real relationship and when he met the woman fell “head over heels in love” with her.
