A military man who served his country with distinction put four women through hell, a court heard. For many years, veteran Jonathan Bates created fake pornographic accounts for two women he had worked with after leaving the Armed Forces because he wanted to ‘punish them for not supporting him’.
Bates even put a total stranger whom he had met for a few minutes at a funeral through the same ordeal for his own gratification.
A sentencing hearing at Truro Crown Court today (Thursday, January 2) heard how the 54-year-old dad-of-one would trawl through his victims’ Facebook and Instagram accounts and steal their photographs before putting their faces on the bodies of naked women on pornographic and swingers’ online sites.
Bates, from RAF St Mawgan near Newquay, also searched for any information he could glean about his victims from professional platforms such as LinkedIn and added as many personal details as he could about them to the porn sites and other fake social media pages he created for them.
The court heard how Bates pleaded guilty to four counts of stalking involving serious alarm or distress between 2017 and 2022. He also pleaded guilty to a fifth count of disclosing or threatening to disclose private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress with regards to one of the women involved.
The court heard how his stalking was sophisticated and methodical. It had required considerable skills and planning and was done to “maximise the level of fear and humiliation” he wanted to inflict on his victims with a view to destroying their lives.
His Honour Judge Simon Carr said this was one of the worst cases of stalking he had ever had the displeasure of dealing with in his career.
Stuart Allen, prosecuting, told the court that Bates’ modus operandi involved befriending his victims and then going through their personal details, especially photographs on Facebook, and using those pictures to create fake webpages or accounts on porn sites with lurid information about the free or paid for sexual services his victims would provide anyone accessing these sites.
On one occasion, one of the four women stalked by Bates received a visit from a total stranger at her home address, who berated her for not turning up at the pub the night before as seemingly arranged.
Another of Bates’ victims was even approached by people inquiring about the sexual acts she advertised online after putting posters up of her missing cat.
The court was also told how Bates even advised one of his victims to take it up with the police after her suspicions were raised when she realised that he might be the perpetrator of the years of online stalking she had been a victim of.
Police in Kent and in Cornwall, where Bates returned to in 2015, investigated the cases of stalking but could not link him to the fake accounts and social media pages.
It was only when one of his victims realised that all the victims had one Facebook friend in common – Bates – that she started to connect the dots and was able to go to the police with more information.
Mr Allen told the court that when one victim Bates targeted confronted him, he was able to gaslight her into thinking that his computer must have been hacked. However, nine USB sticks were later discovered belonging to Bates, which contained the personal details and photographs of hundreds and hundreds of women.
“Putting faces on other naked women’s bodies with disgusting and explicit language commentary on fake accounts was very much Bates’ MO,” Mr Allen told the court.
Mr Allen said that despite efforts to have their images and fake account profiles taken down by the various porn sites Bates had created on their behalf, his victims feared that what he had done was just the tip of the iceberg of what probably circulated online.
One of his victims said her life and professional career had been ruined as a result of Bates’ making out she was an escort or a swinger. In a victim impact statement read out in court, she said: “The effect on my life and my career has been profound. He created a persona for me that is very different from me. It’s the first thing I think of when I get up in the morning and the last thing I think of at night as I go to bed. I have lost such valuable time with my daughter that I will never get back. It affected my relationship with my husband, my family and my colleagues. I have felt too scared to leave my house and I now carry a personal alarm with me.”
She added: “I am scared of him and that people may think it is really me. My reputation has been put into question. In my role, reputation is my everything. I fear I will now lose out on future roles because of the defamation of my character.”
Another of Bates’ victims added: “It’s just the tip of the iceberg. I dread that it will come to light again in years to come. I’m sick and tired of this.”
A third victim said the stalking had left her in a heightened state of distress, adding: “I do not know what I have ever done to make him ruin my life. I had to leave my job and my career. My professional reputation has been tarnished. This has taken a huge emotional and psychological toll on me.”
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She said she now has trust issues and is paranoid about the people she meets and suffers from anxiety and panic attacks. In her victim impact statement, she said: “I have had therapy over the last seven years to try to regain who I was before. I am in fear of leaving my house. My life is in shambles.”
Another of Bates’ victims said she now fears people will randomly turn up at her address thinking she works in the sex trade or is some sort of escort.
Another victim said Bates’ betrayal had been worse as he had been someone she trusted, but discovering pictures of herself on fake porn sites had left her feeling humiliated.
In mitigation, Deni Mathews said Bates had served his country with distinction and had done several tours of war zones, as a result of which he suffered from PTSD. He said that his years in the Armed Forces and seeing the things he had seen during conflicts may have made Bates less sensitive to the impact of this type of offending than other people in other lines of work.
“His career in the military has now certainly come to an end. This has cost him his marriage. He has lost contact with his daughter. It will have a financial impact on him too and he will certainly lose his MoD accommodation and the life and stability that he has enjoyed through his military career.”
Mr Mathews said Bates had not reoffended since 2022, adding: “He does now appreciate the consequences of his actions and has shown genuine remorse.”
Judge Carr said being a veteran who served his country with distinction was something people would have much sympathy for, but the stalking of these four women was one of the worst he had seen in his legal career.
Sentencing Bates to five years in prison, Judge Carr said Bates had enjoyed humiliating his victims and instilling fear in them for his own pleasure, adding: “You didn’t do it face-to-face but via the internet. You wanted to punish (the victims) because you felt they had not helped you and so they required punishment, the reason for it being only known to you.
“This took considerable skills and planning to destroy their lives. This is where the power of the internet becomes stark. These images you created will be online forever. Over many years your victims were able to have various entries removed from certain sites only to find them replaced by you. It is the realisation that there are hundreds, possibly thousands of these images now being moved between sites.
“Your actions have utterly devastated lives. Your victims have stopped their careers. They have felt unable to apply for new roles as teachers. Some have tried to change their own appearance so as not to be recognised.
“You served your country with distinction but this is your other side. You have devastated the lives of these four women for your own entertainment and they will go to their graves knowing that there are images of them on the internet offering sexual services of an extreme nature. This was done to maximise fear and humiliation for your own gratification over many years.”
A restraining order for 10 years was also imposed on Bates.
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