A former Labour city councillor has admitted to leaving a woman alarmed or distressed by stalking her; but claims he was trying to ‘help her’ by stalking and harassing this woman.
Dipu Ahad, of Benwell, admitted a series of acts which left the woman seriously alarmed and distressed. His legal team are now claiming he was harassed by the EDL which led him to stalk this woman.
The man has no evidence he was harassed by the movement; however, he has been very vocal in the past in criticism of the EDL (English Defence League). He has called its members ‘white and thick’. Dipu Ahad is also a very vocal member of the far-left organisation Antifa.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that he did a number of acts between December 31st 2018 and May 30th 2019 which amounted to stalking both physically and online.
Prosecutor’s state there were 16 specific acts which form the basis of the allegations. They lead from online stalking to physically attending the woman’s home. This man has clearly abused his position as a local councillor.
The string of events in which this vile committed are as follows.
He created an email account, Facebook and Instagram account in the victim’s name and ‘friend requested’ her sister. He sent an email to himself purporting to be the offender and revealed this to the victim.
Dipu placed a stone and flower on the victim’s car. He also made a phone call to victim’s home address pretending to be from ‘immigration’, he did this multiple times. He sent an email in which he suggested he had been receiving malicious phone calls.
A month later he sent a WhatsApp message to the victim in which he suggested the incident involving the stone/flower was a threat and that he had been receiving malicious phone calls.
Dipu then sent screenshots which ostensibly showed multiple malicious calls and he sent her a voicemail purposely left by the offender. Shortly after he used chalk paint to graffiti on the victim’s car.
He created an email account in her name and sent an email to the woman containing photographs from her wedding. The woman has been reported to have been very alarmed and frightened.
Dipu and his legal team are now claiming that he can’t be held fully responsible for his actions because
“He was held by Israeli defence forces in 2014 in circumstances that resulted in him suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder… He then subsequently has had threats by the EDL to behead him while he was working very hard as a city councillor.”
The victim’s name can’t be used due to legal issues surrounding the case.
Judge Edward Bindloss adjourned sentencing until April 19th for probation reports to be carried out.
The judge told him:
“I’m going to grant you conditional bail on the same conditions as before… The fact I’m adjourning your case and ordering a report and granting bail is no indication as to the likely sentence. All options remain open.”
A custodial sentence hasn’t been ruled out.
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