A Fife stalker who sent unwanted sexually explicit messages and photos to six women has been jailed.
Christopher Cowan’s behaviour led one of his victims to install CCTV and alarms at her home after he turned up at her work and bombarded her with phone calls.
He had denied sending the obscene texts and messages to his victims, claiming someone else was trying to set him up.
However, a jury unanimously found him guilty following a three-day trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court last month.
Cowan, formerly of Lady Anne Court in Crossgates, appeared for sentencing via video link from prison, having been remanded in custody on February 10.
Sheriff Charles Macnair jailed him for two years and placed him on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years, with indefinite non-harassment orders made on all six of his victims.
The sheriff described the offending as “extremely distressing stalking behaviour”.
He said Cowan has shown “no insight” into his actions and to a degree, is blaming the victims and can not be safely managed in the community.
Snapchat stalking
One woman told the trial last month she was contacted by Cowan using the Snapchat profile name ‘Lewis Calamari’ in January 2020.
He started sending her explicit messages.
The woman said she felt “disturbed” but initially thought the person may have been someone she knew and she decided to keep the dialogue going to try to get answers.
After receiving a photo of a penis, she received a Snapchat message: “Are you wondering who is behind that pic you saw?”
Procurator fiscal depute Ronnie Hay read out a further message, which suggested Cowan knew his target’s occupation.
Further references were made to her hobbies and interests.
The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, blocked the account but was contacted again by Cowan using another account with the profile name ‘Lewis Calamari 2.0’.
Creepy Bitmojis
At this point the woman told the person to stop contacting her.
“I was getting angry and upset,” she said.
“I was also very concerned at this point that someone who knew me would not do this.
“I was starting to feel targeted in a very negative way.”
She said the second profile then sent her a Bitmoji – a personalised cartoon avatar – which looked “as close as it could” to her, as well as another male Bitmoji peering from behind a curtain.
The woman said: “It was quite creepy, like spying on me in a way.”
Further examples of Bitmojis sent to the woman were shown to the court, including a male peering through some bushes and another male looking through some blinds, making the woman worry she was being followed.
Another profile called Lewis Calamari 3.0 contacted her and then, after blocking it, a profile with the name Chri51990 tried to contact her.
She blocked this at the outset, believing it was the same person.
A friend of this woman also gave evidence that he was contacted by the Snapchat pseudonym ‘Lewis Calamari 3.0’ in January 2020.
He said they kept demanding he ask the woman to unblock this profile on their behalf, which the friend refused to do.
The friend told the court: “It got increasing obsessive, it was stalkerish behaviour.”
Woman received photo of herself
Another woman, 29, told the trial she was sent sexually explicit Snapchat messages at around the same time from profiles using the same variations of ‘Lewis Calamari’ and from the profile Chri51990.
This woman was later sent a photograph of herself by another profile called ‘lipfiller sl**s’ along with a sexualised message.
She said: “The picture had been taken off my Facebook.
“It made me feel uneasy because the person was trying to add me and knew who I was because they had been on Facebook.
“It’s scary getting messages from someone when you don’t know who it is.”
Both women told the court they were also sent a picture of a woman surrounded by several black males in a sexual context by other Snapchat accounts they did not recognise.
They also both spoke of receiving vulgar messages about ‘macaroni noises.’
Installed CCTV and alarms
Another victim said she initially had contact with Cowan on a dating website and met up with him on four occasions.
She told the court she later received sexually explicit messages from him.
The woman said she received this kind of contact from about ten different phone numbers but believed it was the same person because of the type of language used and comments made about her job.
Cowan also turned up at her place of work, where he was asked to desist by her colleagues.
He also made repeated phone calls to the woman.
She told the court the situation made her feel “anxious and upset” and she now has CCTV and an alarm system installed at her house.
Two more women also gave evidence during the trial that they had been sent sexually explicit messages and images of penises on either Snapchat – from the Lewis Calamari profile combinations and others – or unknown numbers on WhatsApp.
Another woman, who had met Cowan previously but told him she was not interested, gave evidence he had gone on to message her on Snapchat to say they could “have Netflix and chill” before sending her a sexually explicit message.
Accused ‘failed’ to cover his tracks
The trial heard a police officer who visited Cowan’s home noticed his bedding matched that in a photo of a penis that formed part of the investigation.
Cowan had tried to claim the messages had been sent by someone else.
Mr Hay told jurors towards the end of the three-day trial: “Surely someone who wanted to get Christopher Cowan into trouble by sending images of his penis would simply create an account in his name and send unwanted material to witnesses.”
He said: “Christopher Cowan has created numerous profiles and sent unwanted sexual material from profiles, including images of his erect penis and tried to cover his tracks but he has failed.”
On Thursday, Cowan’s defence agent, Stephen Morrison, suggested his client’s offending had resulted from loneliness and boredom.
The court also heard Cowan had one previous conviction in February 2020 for sending sexually explicit pictures and images to a woman who is also a victim in the current case.
