A pensioner was called an ‘old aged predator’ when a tit for tat spat turned a Facebook group for holidaymakers into a ‘social media hellhole’, a court heard.
Lisa Wilkinson, 46, mercilessly trolled Edward Hampton, calling him and his wife the ‘Tramptons’, during a six-month row between February and July last year.
She also called him a ‘dirty scumbag’ and accused him of cheating by sleeping with ‘with drunk members while wifey sleeps like an old aged predator’.
Wilkinson appeared at Sefton Magistrates Court on Tuesday, March 25, where she pleaded not guilty to harassment.
The pair had both been members of a Facebook group for Marmaris tourists, ‘MARM R US’, set up by Mr Hampton.
Wilkinson had been an admin in the group, but then decided to join another identically-named group set up by a Turkish friend.
She posted the barrage of abusive posts under the name ‘Buster Wilko’, the court heard.
Giving evidence, Mr Hampton said they left him feeling ‘terrible’.
He said: ‘Disgusting posts were put on, then there would be 50 to 100 people jumping in saying “that’s terrible, he’s a predator, I didn’t know that”.
‘They didn’t even know me. But every day something was posted. I did give the police 27 screenshots calling me a paedophile, calling me a pervert, down the same line all the time.’
Wilkinson, of Kirkby, admitted making the posts, but said she had done so ‘in self-defence’ as she believed Mr Hampton had made comments about her anonymously online, including body-shaming her on a ‘love rat’ website.
She also claimed he had ‘pulled his pants down and put his a**e in her face with his b**** hanging and thought it was a joke’.
In court, she said Mr Hampton had been using his Facebook group ‘as a business’ and had been controlling on group holidays, saying: ‘He would want to go places they chose where he gets his meals and drinks free. He wouldn’t let me recommend things.’
She said: ‘It’s not revenge at all. He put posts on his group about me. This is me defending myself. It’s self-defence… sticking up for myself against a narcissist, a manipulator, a gaslighter.’
But prosecutor Craig Welsby said there was no evidence that Mr Hampton had been the source of any anonymous comments about her.
He said: ‘The behaviour was improper, oppressive and unreasonable conduct.
‘The defendant doesn’t have any problem with what she’s posted. She says she made these in response to comments made towards her.
‘She hasn’t given any copies of these comments she is speaking about. She accepts it was anonymous posts, but she believes it is the complainant because of what was said.
‘The defendant accepts she sent the comments accusing the complainant of being someone who is a predator, that has sex with drunk women, and has put this on a forum that 2,500 people have access to.
‘I have asked in what way it is self-defence. All I have had is the view that it’s tit for tat. It doesn’t justify this behaviour… Two wrongs don’t make a right.’
Harvey Appleby, defending, said Wilkinson was just one of many people making similar comments on Facebook.
But Mr Welsby said: ‘There’s quite clearly a dispute in the background and the defendant is posting comments and sending messages accusing the complainant of being a predator on at least two occasions.
‘Does it matter if the defendant is the leader or not? No, it doesn’t.
‘What matters is the defendant accepts in this case she embarked on a course of conduct that was unreasonable, that was oppressive. There was a targeted victim.’
Mr Appleby said: ‘This is an unfortunate case where heaven in Turkey has turned into a social media hellhole.
‘Ms Wilkinson doesn’t shy away from her comments but what has to be considered is the context.
‘(Mr Hampton) ran the social media page like it was a personal domain for him to control and when people took umbrage and started a new group it has led to this. It was tit for tat.
‘This is a case where all parties involved I’m sure, with the benefit of hindsight, would have conducted themselves in a manner that was different if given the chance.’
Finding Wilkinson guilty of harassment, the magistrate said: ‘Ms Wilkinson accepts what she said in this case and she accepts these caused alarm and distress.
‘We acknowledge she believes the posts to be retaliatory, however there has been a series of conduct as there have been multiple entries targeted at an individual that would likely cause distress.
‘We do not feel the conduct was reasonable.’
Wilkinson was bailed and will appear for sentence at Liverpool Magistrates Court on May 9.
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