It never stops
Here’s a snapshot into a fairly typical 24 hours of blogging by Dawn. Just remember people, this woman is also responsible for the care of a pre-school child.
She starts by listing a set of traits she attributes to me. Most are patent fictions.
I think she’s discovered a childrens’ book (or set thereof) that she’s convinced I’m partly responsible for. It’s a sign from GOD after all.
Now it’s on to her pretend-campaign as a lawyer. She decided long ago that Greg Moyle (local Auckland politician) is related to me. This has led to emails also directed at the NZ Financial Planners.
Susanne is one of her original stalking targets. Gosh, it has been about 14 months since Dawn began harassing me.
The threats never stop
Another invention is that I have been married to a Michelle (since divorced). This led to a Michelle in NZ being deluged with a stream of emails advising her. These emails were forwarded to me.
It is a matter of public record in NZ that I haven’t been married to either a Susanne or a Michelle, and that I’m not divorced.
Lucidity is diminishing…
More odious fiction
Sigh. Reality has been left a long way in the distance.
Sigh…
15 Responses to “It never stops”
crikey.
yep. Not counting the emails or posts to other forums.
Every day
Every week
Every month
Month after month.
Sigh.
What happens if you just ignore her, Brendan? There must be a limit to how much threat a deluded mental health consumer located on the other side of the world can really be to you?
What does she want?
I don’t mean to sound dismissive; I have a colleague in the US who has a bothersome person on their case though it is professional rather than personal – but hugely time and energy wasting all the same.
Hi Carol-
Well, ignoring her is what I’ve largely been doing (& there’s no way I could keep up with this anyway). That’s the strategy that was agreed on last year. I think normally this would (eventually) work, but she’s decided that lots of other people on the web are me (trait 18 in her list) and that keeps her going.
What she wants depends on where she is in her cycle. If it’s the hate-part, the destroying me a la the biblical Job (but without the happy ending) seems popular. If it’s the love part, I become the Christian adventuring animal-lover she fantasises/masturbates to.
What makes this different is the personal dimension. It’s hard to remain detached when your personal life is invaded, corrupted and spewed over numerous social media, blogs and forums. I don’t want my clients, my family, my employer or my students reading accusations that I’m an ex-drug using, alcoholic, racist philanderer, adulterer, bigot who lies to women. I don’t want anyone reading her masturbatory fantasies- it’s very humiliating. This is what ignoring her means in practice. She gets a free-pass to stalk me.
I’ve just spent half a day with my employer, having to respond to her fake lawyer’s accusations of professional misconduct. It’s not feasible to just pretend this isn’t happening.
I’m afraid stalking leads to psychological harms even in the absence of physical threats. Insomnia, depression, anxiety-attacks are all common consequences of this.
I’m really sorry to hear that, Brendan. It sounds unbelievably awful and distressing. I suppose if she was in NZ you could take out a restraining order, or whatever the internet equivalent is.
It could easily be anyone in NZ with a public profile that becomes the target.
Is there anything colleagues or people like me can do to stop this happening? eg petition the authorities over there to get her professional help or at least curtail her internet privileges?
Yes, it would be a lot easier if it was being undertaken in NZ. There are a lot more legal options.
There is a petition to Canadian mental health authorities started by another victim, which may do some good.
http://www.change.org/petitions/mental-health-assistance-for-dawn-gordon
Getting authorities to pay attention to David Mabus using a similar tactic did lead to his stalking ending.
I presume you’re saying that the NZ Police e-crime unit aren’t able to help – ?
I am going to be making a voluminous complaint to the NZ Police- but note she has stalked others who have made substantial complaints within their jurisdictions. It has not led to the Canadian police in her jurisdiction taking any action. It is not straightforward once you deal with trans-national cases.
I’m hoping that the pretense to be a lawyer to a number of NZ institutions will suffice to inflate the seriousness of the complaint. But you need a lot of evidence to substantiate a complaint, and you don’t get collate evidence if you’re ignoring her.
At the moment, well, I’m using the blog here to ‘vent’. And maybe alert people to the fact that it’s not only women who get stalked. And that ways to stalk people on the internet have proliferated. And it’s not flattering, but deeply disturbing.
I will certainly sign up to that petition, Brendan. It seems like the least anyone can do who is sympathetic to this awful problem.
‘Venting’ is entirely understandable.
PS apparently only four signatures more are needed for this petition to achieve momentum. Perhaps you could get support from the Sciblogs crew?
Signed, hope it helps.
I have signed also, likewise…I hope it helps!
🙂
I always live in hope
I wish you all the best Brendan.
While farming, my partner and I were ‘persued’ for four years by a disgruntled ex-employee, his wife, and their ‘friends’. Not by computer, thank goodness. These people were not mad, just nasty. And, other than a trespass order, we discovered there was very little we could legally do. Like you, we did our best to ignore them, but that didn’t stop their accusations to the police, government departments, environmental agencies, SPCA, our co-operative, clients we sold stock to (both in NZ and overseas), businesses around town, etc, etc.
The effort that went into having to defend ourselves was enormous. We were also having to run a farm/business while they were doing very little with their lives other than thinking up new ways to make our lives miserable. There were occassional moments of black humour, however, like the time they gave our names as referees for a job application!! (Perhaps they were slightly mad).
There was no point taking them to court for defamation, they had no money. In the end, they caused enough mayhem in other peoples’ lives as well and the police finally acted and we were left alone.
Hang in there Brendan. It will end, and good people will believe you and support you.
@miclcmaid- Thanks- it’s just been a very rough week here sadly. There are some encouraging things happening however.