Damages for woman stalked for 12 years by online date

A WOMAN who met a man through The Guardian’s Soulmates has won damages after he stalked her for 12 years.

Paul Curran’s campaign against Lindsey Goldrick Dean, a former marketing consultant, was said to have affected her health, relationships with family and friends, and damaged her professional career.

Mr Curran, director of Curran Consulting Ltd, which was also listed as a defendant, agreed to pay damages to Ms Goldrick Dean and her legal costs.

The High Court in London heard Ms Goldrick Dean met Mr Curran through The Guardian’s Soulmates website in October 2004. They were in a relationship until she ended it in February 2005.

However, for 12 years until August 2017, Gervase de Wilde, representing Ms Goldrick Dean, said the defendants created at least 10 websites, some of which were named after her, and “contained materials about or relating to the claimant, including offensive, private and/or confidential information”.

“Neither defendant sought the claimant’s consent to any of this activity, nor would she have given her consent had it been sought,” he said.

Mr de Wilde said on a number of occasions between March 2005 and June 2005, Mr Curran emailed, phoned and sent post to Ms Goldrick Dean, despite her repeated requests for him to stop. During the same period, he used similar methods to make contact with her family and friends, to bring the websites to their attention.

In 2014, Mr Curran and his company bought a Google banner advertisement which included a photo of Ms Goldrick Dean and a link to one of the websites and, in 2015, he created two Twitter, accounts using her name.

Mr de Wilde said that the campaign continued despite Ms Goldrick Dean complaining on several occasions to the police, who made plans to arrest Mr Curran but found that he was living outside the UK much of the time.

A statement by Mr Curran, who was not in court, said: “Whilst I do not accept all of the allegations, the majority are not disputed. I am ashamed of my past behaviour and disappointed by my lack of judgment.”

After the hearing, Ms Goldrick Dean said: “I hope to give hope to other people because there is help out there.”