Tinder chat could cost yachtsman £130,000
After he’s sued for harassing student who rejected him...
AN obsessed yachtsman who tried to get a student he spoke with on Tinder kicked out of university is facing a £130,000 court bill.
Oliver Mills- Nanyn, 23, launched his ‘predatory’ campaign of harassment after he briefly spoke with Manchester University student Scarlett Dew online.
They matched on the dating app Tinder in late 2019 but she ended her ‘ friendship’ with him in July 2020 after his behaviour grew increasingly ‘ erratic’, her lawyer told London’s High Court.
Mills-Nanyn, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, then set up fake accounts on social media to contact Miss Dew.
He also started following her friends and family online. She took action and in March last year, he agreed to ‘cease and desist’ from contacting her.
However, he then wrote to Manchester University, accusing her of ‘stalking and harassing’ him and he asked for her to be removed from her course.
Miss Dew has now taken her case to the High Court, where he was handed a suspended sixmonth jail term for contacting
her. The aspiring merchant seaman, who works as a deckhand on a yacht, was ordered to pay Miss Dew £30,000 in damages and faces another £98,154 court bill after being told to pay her legal fees. Her barrister Ben Hamer said his harassment culminated in his ‘disgraceful’ report to her university.
In a complaint form, he claimed he had ‘taken out a non-molestation order’ against Miss Dew, adding: ‘Due to her being a student in the city of Manchester, this has left me scared to leave home and I am requesting for her to be removed from the university.’
Mr Hamer said: ‘There was no such non-molestation order and nor was she stalking or harassing Mr Mills-Nanyn. The reverse was true. His account is the narrative of a fantasist.’
He added that Miss Dew, who studies biomedical sciences,
‘Calculating and abusive’
went to court because she wanted him jailed. Mr Hamer explained: ‘She fears he will continue following her for ever, continue to harm her relationships and future career prospects.’
Mills- Nanyn admitted 20 breaches of his March 2021 undertaking not to harass or contact Miss Dew. His barrister Simon Fagan said his client accepted his conduct was ‘inappropriate’ – and as he’s working on a yacht for the rest of the year, there would be little chance of him breaching the undertaking again.
Ruling, Mrs Justice CollinsRice said Mills-Nanyn had ‘no excuse for this calculating and abusive conduct’. But she suspended his six-month sentence for contempt of court due to his lack of previous convictions and the effect of jail on his future maritime career.