‘Prolonged’campaign to threaten man

The ‘‘smoking gun’’ in the case of a longterm harassment campaign by a government employee was a note found in his car, the Crown says.

The 39-year-old man is charged with criminal harassment, intentional damage and threatening grievous bodily harm. He faced a five-day judge-alone trial in the Dunedin District Court

The harassment campaign allegedly included spray-painting the complainant’s name and phone number around gay hangouts, sending him text messages featuring gay slurs and photos of penises, mailing him a sex toy and letters, and paint bombing his business.

The defendant, who has name suppression, was involved in a ‘‘prolonged campaign to threaten and frighten the complainant’’ after a 2012 parking dispute, Crown prosecutor Mitchell McClenaghan told the court.

The Crown claimed the defendant became infatuated with the complainant, with his actions sophisticated and largely unable to be traced.

The ‘smoking gun’’ was a note found in a search of the defendant’s vehicle on February 22, 2015.

The note contained crucial evidence linking the defendant with the harassment campaign: an email address, a phone number and letters referring to a New Zealand dating website.

The man’s defence counsel, Anne Stevens, said her client was not the person behind the campaign and there was ‘‘no evidence of any malice’’ from him.

The Crown said the defendant’s claim the note was him jotting down a text he received was a ‘‘proven lie’’ as records showed the message did not exist.

Earlier in the trial, the man said he had ‘‘no interest’’ in the defendant, but later said he ‘‘potentially hated him’’.

The Crown said the defendant was the ‘‘stalker’’ who had an ‘‘unhealthy obsessive and peculiar interest in a man he once had a parking dispute with’’.

Judge Paul Kellar’s decision expected in April. is