A City worker has been jailed for 16 weeks, for harassment, following an investigation by the City of London Police’s Cyber Crime Unit.
Davide Buccheri, 25, was convicted of harassment last week at Westminster Magistrates' Court by District Judge Richard Blake who told him his “wicked, calculated campaign” against his victim was “shameful”.
He also referenced the “very manipulative way” Buccheri acted during the trial when denying him bail.
Buccheri was sentenced yesterday (1 May) at the same court. He was also made to pay £5,000 compensation to the victim, £1,000 in court fees and has been given an indefinite restraining order to the victim and any member of her family.
District Judge Blake heard how, over a number of months in 2017, Buccheri set out to embarrass, discredit and cause significant anxiety to one of his female work colleague by uploading genuine pictures of her from her social media accounts alongside explicit images of women from the internet to galleries on pornographic websites.
Buccheri then used an internal whistleblowing tool at their place of work to report the images to the company’s HR department in a bid to tarnish her reputation.
When delivering his guilty verdict, District Judge Blake said: “You were obsessed with this young woman. You were overwhelmed by her rejection of you and then you set about to destroy her.
“You have accepted that you became infatuated with her but she did nothing to foster or encourage that delusion in you and did nothing to encourage your attentions. She clearly felt embarrassed by them.
“At the start of her career, an intelligent woman leaving University with every reason to be excited about the future suddenly found herself confronted with these ghastly images.
“She is going to have to live the rest of her professional life with the sniggers by the water cooler. She doesn’t deserve that. This young woman did absolutely nothing to bring about your disgusting behaviour.
“I hope anybody that knows her or works with her gives her the privacy of not acknowledging this case and allows this young woman to go on with her career.”
Detective Constable Dave Blight from the City of London Police Cyber Crime Unit said: “The City of London Police hope today’s sentencing serves as a warning to would-be offenders who think they are safe from police action because they are committing their crimes online.
"They are not. We were able to provide overwhelming evidence to ensure a conviction in this case and we hope this provides reassurance to other victims of this type of crime and encourages them to come forward to the police."
