Before attempting to get her expelled from university, an infatuated yachtsman stalked and tormented a Tinder date by alleging that she was the one stalking him.
‘Manipulative’ After having a brief relationship with Scarlett Dew, a medical student at Manchester University, in late 2019, Oliver Mills-Nanyn allegedly started his harassment campaign.
According to her attorney Ben Hamer, Miss Dew “broke off contact” with Mills-Nanyn in July 2020 as a result of his increasingly “erratic” behavior.
The 23-year-old from Oldham persisted in trying to get in touch with Miss Dew nevertheless.
He even created fake social media profiles to get in touch with her and ‘follow her friends and family,’ telling her: ‘I’d love to take you on a date.’
Mills-Nanyn promised to “stop and desist” from contacting Miss Dew in March of last year.
But after a “disgraceful” incident, he wrote to her institution to demand that she be kicked out of her course for “stalking and harassing” him.
The High Court’s highest judge, Mrs. Justice Collins-Rice, gave Mills-Nayn a suspended six-month jail sentence last week for breaking his promise to quit pestering Miss Dew.
The ambitious merchant seaman, who is employed as a deckhand aboard a boat, will now have to pay a court-ordered charge of £98,154.
After meeting the yachtsman online and briefly dating him, Miss Dew decided she did not want to pursue a connection with him, according to Mr. Hamer, the defendant’s lawyer, who testified in front of the London court.
He informed the judge that following this, “he started a significant campaign of harassment, which included contacting her friends and relatives via social media and via multiple accounts.”
The barrister claimed that after she blanked his messages, he suddenly became aggressive, notwithstanding his subsequent attempt to make light of his remarks.
Additionally, he created a fake social media account where he pretended to be someone she had met at an Antwerp party.
Mr. Hamer said that his “disgraceful” report to her institution was the campaign’s pinnacle.
He wrote in a complaint form, “A student has been stalking and harassing me and I have just been able to take out a non-molestation order on her.”
However, he continued, “I am appealing for her to be removed from the university because she is a student in the city of Manchester and this has made me afraid to leave home.”
After meeting the yachtsman online and briefly dating him, Miss Dew decided she did not want to pursue a connection with him, according to Mr. Hamer, the defendant’s lawyer, who testified in front of the London court.
There was no such non-molestation order, and she wasn’t stalking or bothering Mr. Mills-Nanyn, according to Mr. Hamer.
The opposite was true, and his account is a fantasist’s story.
The barrister said, “The social media bombardment cast a gloomy shadow over Miss Dew’s stay at university, leaving her in fear that she would never escape Mills-pursuit.
“Nanyn’s Miss Dew discovered that her friends had also been contacted by Mills-Nanyn.
Ms. Dew went to court to try to get Mills-Nanyn arrested for continuing to stalk her after he broke his promise to stop communicating with her and her family.
Given the tenacity of his campaign, Ms. Dew, a biological sciences student, believed she had no choice. Mr. Hamer explained this.
He stated, “She thinks that he will follow her for all time, continue to control others around her, and destroy her relationships and potential future employment.”
No matter where she goes or what she does, she feels like she just can’t escape him.
Although Mills-Nanyn ultimately confessed 20 violations of his March 2021 undertaking not to harass or contact Ms. Dew, the barrister said that Mills-Nanyn had displayed little sense of remorse when the case reached court.
According to Mills-attorney, Nanyn’s Simon Fagan, his client acknowledged that his behavior was “wrong” and that he should not have behaved in the way that was stated or at all.
There would be little danger of Mills-Nanyn breaking the agreement again because he is currently working on a yacht that will be at sea for the remainder of the year, according to Mr. Fagan.
In her decision, Mrs. Justice Collins-Rice stated that Mills-Nanyn had “no justification for this cold-blooded and violent conduct” and had “very late” apologized for his acts.
The backdrop of the violations, she continued, “was a protracted, damaging, insulting, coercive and predatory course of action, representing a grave infringement of an innocent young woman’s fundamental rights to freedom.”
He received a six-month sentence for contempt of court, but the judge said she was suspending it because of his lack of prior convictions and the potential impact that jail time might have on his future maritime career.
She continued by saying to Ms. Dew, “I realize this can’t give you back the experiences of your university life and the friendships that every young woman of your age is entitled to enjoy.
But I sincerely hope that you will be able to get over this incident and resume living the life you deserve.
As the judge handed down his punishment, Mills-Nanyn stood up in court. He was also required to pay Ms. Dew’s court costs of £98,154.