A vindictive husband launched a campaign of revenge against his teacher ex-wife by falsely claiming she was a swinger and had been caught dogging.
Geoffrey Andrews created a fictitious Facebook profile and sent messages to the council, his local newspaper, and the school where she worked claiming she was unfit to teach in a bitter attempt to get her sacked.
The 34-year-old, who has a 12-year-old daughter with his ex-wife, appeared at Bolton Magistrates’ Court yesterday where he pleaded guilty to harassment without violence over three weeks in January last year.
Andrews, from Bromley Cross in Bolton, created a false profile on Facebook which he used to befriend his ex-wife, who has not been named, by claiming he was a new teacher at the school.
He also hacked into her email address and set up two accounts on swinger’s websites in her name.
The father-of-three created a false email address for a ‘Mike Jones’, which he used to contact Wigan Council, Meadowbank Primary School in Atherton, Greater Manchester, and The Bolton News, in an attempt to damage her name.
The email sent to The Bolton News claimed that Andrews’ ex-wife had been reported to Ofsted by worried parents and to the Department for Work and Pensions for benefit fraud.
It also listed sexual habits that he claimed she pursued and said she had been caught dogging.
But after investigations the newspaper did not go ahead with the story.
Zaheeda Khan, prosecuting, said Andrews’ ex-wife became aware of the emails after she was called in to speak to her boss.
Ms Khan said: ‘She didn’t know what it was about and she wasn’t interested in swingers. She was asked if she knew anyone with an axe to grind and she said she didn’t, but it was wholly untrue.
‘She said it has caused her distress, she has been labelled as someone who is unfit to teach.
‘Grave consequences could have come about as a result of this. He could have actually lost her her job.
Andrews set up two accounts on swingers websites in his ex-wife’s name as part of his bitter campaign
‘If The Bolton News had printed any of the information it could have had a devastating effect on her and her daughter.’
The couple married in 1999 but separated in 2005 and finally divorced in 2008.
Andrews has since re-married and his new wife is pregnant with the couple’s second child.
Adam Whittaker, defending, said it was ‘stupid’ and ‘foolish’ and Andrews ‘deeply regrets his actions’.
He told the court Andrews had become ‘bitter and angry’ after not seeing much of his daughter over the Christmas period and said he created the profile to get more information from his ex-wife about their daughter.
Andrews, a project manager at a company based in Reddish, was given a three-year conditional discharge and a six-year restraining order not to contact his ex-wife.
He was ordered to pay £175 costs and £800 compensation.