Three years ago, using a fake name, Desirae Martin created an online profile at Search for arrangements.
It’s a move she says has haunted her for years.
After a few months, he started receiving repeated messages from Facebook accounts with the names John Reddy and Joe Smith.
“Every time I blocked both accounts, they would do it again with the exact same names,” Martin said.
It quickly escalated from personal attacks to targeting her and her family publicly and professionally.
“He started commenting on my parents’ business posts. And then he started commenting on my personal business posts,” Martin recalled.
“Write a Google review on my business page. And you can’t really get rid of them.”
The salon where her business operates was also targeted in a Google review last summer.
“Desirae is a working girl,” read a comment by John Reddy. “Watch out he’ll try to fix more than your eyebrows..try to ‘login’ after work hours.”
Seeking is a dating site for people looking for a sugar daddy or sugar baby as well as for more traditional relationships.
“Basically I had to explain to him [the owner] that someone has been stalking me for almost three years,” Martin said.
“He was writing this on many girls’ page. He would tag girls. I knew I wasn’t alone.”
That’s when she called the police.
By the end of the summer, an investigator with the Calgary Police Service working on Martin’s case called to let her know they had made an arrest.
The investigator had obtained search warrants, evidence was seized from the defendant’s laptop and cell phone.
This meant Martin would eventually face her accused stalker in court.
But a year later, the investigator called her again. The case had been stayed by the Crown prosecutor.
“This is speculation,” Martin said. “But I feel like they’re so overwhelmed, they picked up my case and said ‘this is small’ and then threw it away.”
As part of a statement to Global News, the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service said “…it does not proceed with prosecutions unless the evidence establishes a ‘reasonable likelihood of conviction’ and the matter is in the public interest.”
“In this case, the file was assessed by the Crown prosecutor as well as a senior prosecutor who concluded that the file did not meet the ACPS test for prosecution.”
Kathy Macdonald, a retired Calgary police officer and now private investigator who specializes in cybercrime, said it’s not uncommon for these types of cases to never make it to court.
“If you’re lucky enough to have the police with the ability to investigate, they have a lot on their plate,” McDonald said.
“These are tough investigations to be sure. So when they finally get to court, you’d hope something would happen.”
But with no money to hire a lawyer, Martin now has little recourse. She’s scared – not just for her reputation, but for her safety.
“He knows where I work. He knows my parents’ names. It’s really worrying,” Martin said. “I’m really scared of this person. And I just wish someone would take me seriously.”
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
