Angry ex partner harassed woman through texts and social media

For weeks after Lee Tatai Rongonui was dumped he wouldn’t leave his ex-girlfriend alone.

By phone and social media he taunted her saying he had a serious communicable illness and he repeatedly posted her contact details on dating sites with messages encouraging men to contact her for sex.

Rongonui, 50, began harassing the woman a few days after she ended their relationship on May 22, the Hawera District Court heard this week.

On June 8, 2016 he sent the victim a series of texts telling her he had a non-reversible illness, that he would not name, that would have ‘unfavourable’ results, police prosecutor Sergeant Craig Jones said.

The victim underwent blood tests that same day for various communicable diseases. Police inquiries revealed Ronganui was a Hepatitis B carrier and had been since 1985 at least.

The defendant and the victim began corresponding online in January 2014 and had begun a sexual relationship in October 2014. They lived in different towns and spent weekends at each other’s homes.

From October 2014 the defendant had unprotected sex with the victim but at no stage in the relationship did he tell her he carried Hepatitis B. The disease was not passed to the victim.

After they broke up, the two continued to communicate by text until the victim asked him via text to stop and blocked his phone numbers. Over the next few weeks he continued to send messages and make voice calls to the victim, despite warnings not to.

He then posed as a person who got her number from an online dating site and sent her more messages.

On July 10 the defendant put photos of the victim, taken off her Facebook page, on to his profile on an internet dating site.

He modified the profile to include her home and work addresses and cell phone number and a short message. The message encouraged viewers to text or call her as she was ‘‘keen to play, contact me because I’m easy’’.

The victim notified the site administrator and they removed the profile. The defendant then put up another photo of a religious figure with a message inviting sexual partners.

He changed the profile on an almost daily basis and provided the victim’s number to persons chatting with him on the site.

As a result, over the next few days the victim received a tele- phone call and texts from five males who had obtained her cellphone number from this site, Jones said. In August the defendant made further contact with the victim, by cellphone, text message and voice messages.

Ronganui had previously pleaded guilty to charges of endangering life/safety/health by criminal nuisance and offensive/ disturbing use of the telephone.

Judge Barkle halted the case on Tuesday and instructed the defendant to read the victim impact summary, so he could understand the impact his actions had on her.

‘‘What you’ve got to appreciate is that you have had an ongoing corrosive effect on her daily life.’’

Barkle sentenced him to a total of 150 hours of community service on the two charges and ordered him to pay $800 in emotional harm reparation to the victim, at the rate of $200 a month.

Lawyer Kelly Marriner said the defendant had told her he ‘‘saw every situation as something you could learn from’’ and was handling new relationships differently.