Man who harassed woman ‘in public eye’ and threatened to release sex tape spared jail

Judge Geoffrey Miller KC told Aaron Foster while the 16 month jail sentence was fully justified, given the fact he had already spend six months in jail while on remand and is currently subject to a probation order, he would suspend that term for two years.

Also imposing a two year restraining order, the Downpatrick Crown Court judge warned 26-year-old Foster to be “under no illusion as to the consequences should you breach either” of those orders.

With a jury sworn and ready to hear Foster’s trial last month, the 26-year-old entered a guilty plea to harassing his victim in that between 21 May and 26 October last year in that he “pursued a course of conduct which amounted to harassment of the victim and which you knew or ought to have known amounted to harassment.”

One further count of harassment and two of stalking were ordered to be “left on the books” and rehearsing the facts of the case during his sentencing remarks today, Judge Miller described how Foster came to know the woman through mutual friends and eventually, that developed into a romantic relationship.

The lady in question, who previous courts have heard lives “in the public eye” and who has the benefit of an anonymity order, was away with work when Foster visited her three times and on the last occasion, “he tried to pressure her to let him stay.”

She refused however and paid for his flight home but in May 2022, Foster sent messages to her and her friends and colleagues that “if she did not contact him he would release a sex tape.”

Commenting that it was important to emphasise “that no such tape existed,” Judge Miller said the victim’s parents tried to intervene in their daughter’s behalf to get Foster to stop “but he continued to send messages saying that he would release this tape.”

Foster also created a fake social media page using the victims name and “sex tape” as the title and the court heard that having joined each of the victim’s friends to it, the defendant also added a “count down to the page” of when he would release the tape “if she didn’t respond.”

She victim suffered “further fear and anxiety” when Foster turned up at her place of work at the start of June and even when he was in prison having breached bail conditions, “the defendant wrote to her to say that he was in prison and that he wanted to re-establish contact.”

Arrested and interview, Foster from Mayfly Mews in Newtownabbey, claimed the victim “knew there was no video” and even if there had been she knew “he would not do that.”

Freed on bail again, Foster was ordered to have no contact with the victim but despite that bail condition Foster sent her 38 text messages and called her more than two dozen times.

The victim recognised the WhatsApp profile as Foster’s and when he was re-arrested and questioned again Foster told cops “he was very anxious and depressed and lonely” so he wanted to speak to her as that would stop him harming himself.

Turning to there victim impact statement, Judge Miller revealed that at the time of the offences the victim felt a “sense of isolation” and her anxiety and fears were such that her employers “brought in security contractors to protect her.”

He told the court she still feared coming back to NI to visit friends and family in case she meets Foster but the judge said “it is to be hoped that the conclusion of these proceedings today and the measures to be put in place will provide some measure of of reassurance to her.”

Judge Miller said despite the fact that Foster’s guilty plea came late in the day and at a time when the victim would have been “preparing herself for the potential additional trauma of given evidence,” he was still due substantial credit for his admissions.

There were also aggravating factors, said the judge, revealing that Foster had committed similar offences against a former friend and had conducted himself towards his parents in such a way that both his mother and father had taken out non-molestation orders against him.

As a result of those offences Foster is currently subject to a probation order and Judge Miller said there was clear authority that a sentencing judge should be reticent to interfere with an ongoing probation order.

He told Foster if he had been convicted after a trial he exiled have given him a 20 month sentence but taking all of the circumstances into account, he imposed a 16 month jail term which was suspended for two years.