Coatesville man admits to stalking Lower Providence woman

NORRISTOWN » A Coatesville man will be under court supervision for several years for stalking a Lower Providence woman after she told him she didn’t want to pursue a relationship with him.

Harry Hinkle Jr., 38, of the 900 block of West Lincoln Highway, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to three years’ probation after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of stalking in connection with a March 2017 incident. Judge Gail A. Weilheimer, who accepted a plea

agreement in the matter, also ordered Hinkle to have no contact with the victim.

Hinkle also must undergo a psychosexual evaluation and comply with any recommended treatment, the judge said.

An investigation began March 2, when a Lower Providence woman reported to township police that someone had posted her personal information on Craigslist.

The woman told police she had been in a brief relationship with Hinkle after meeting him on a dating site called “Bumble” in February and that on March 2 she “informed Hinkle via a text message that she no longer wanted to pursue any type of relationship with him,” according to the criminal complaint filed by Lower Providence Detective Reginald Nealy Jr.

Within an hour of breaking

off the relationship with Hinkle the woman began receiving text messages and calls from unfamiliar phone numbers, detectives said.

“Many of the messages were asking her personal questions and one text message was threatening in nature. Through a short conversation via text (the victim) was able to get one of these persons to explain to her how this person got her information,” Nealy alleged.

That person sent the victim screen shots of two Craigslist postings that contained several photographs of her, along with her home address, cellphone number and a description of her, according to the criminal complaint. The posting was filed under the category “women seeking men.”

Detectives subsequently traced the Craigslist ad to Hinkle.

Hinkle, according to the criminal complaint, also sent nude photographs of the victim to her workplace, according to the criminal complaint. Several of the woman’s supervisors saw the photographs, detectives alleged.

Detectives said the victim was “mortified” knowing her supervisors saw the nude photographs. The victim also was fearful of unknown persons coming to her home because her address was included in the Craigslist postings.

“As a result of Hinkle’s actions, (the victim) was fearful because she was receiving so many text messages from men she did not know and these same men had her photographs and address, to the point that she called the Lower Providence Police Department to request additional patrols of her residence,” Nealy wrote in the arrest affidavit.

By pleading guilty to the stalking charge, Hinkle admitted that he engaged in a course of conduct that placed another person in reasonable fear of bodily injury or caused that person substantial emotional distress.