Stalker abused girls online for 8 years

As well as posting naked pictures of Aiken online Grott racially abused the Jamaican netballer, who signed with the Queensland Firebirds in 2008. Photo / Thinkstock

He was a physiotherapy student, tall, blonde and handsome, and 15-year-old Ellisha Johnston was smitten when Jayke Williams began following her on Instagram and became a Facebook friend.

But Jayke Williams was a made-up name, and the photos of the handsome young man were stolen.

The man who charmed Johnston so much that, after a while, she sent him naked photos of herself was a middle-aged, paunchy father of two from her home town of Dalby, in southeast Queensland.

Johnston was one of at least 20 under-age girls and young women whom Stephen Grott, 46, stalked, manipulated and humiliated over eight years, police believe. Other victims of Grott, who was jailed for five years and six months this week for stalking and identity theft, included Queensland netball star Romelda Aiken.

Johnston's ordeal lasted four years and nearly led her to take her own life. But when "Jayke" first contacted her, she was attracted to him - or at least to the photos he posted online - and flattered by the attention. "He definitely made me feel good about myself," she told Channel Nine's Inside Story programme.

The pair began messaging each other every day and, at Grott's request, the teenager sent him the naked photos. But whenever she suggested they meet up, he always made excuses.

After about a year, when she was 16, she began seeing another man - a real one. This infuriated Grott, who created a false email account and sent obscene messages in her name to the principal of her school.

He also posted Johnston's photos on online dating sites and sent a USB stick containing the photos to her uncle. And he began tracking her movements, sending her messages telling her he knew where she was and what she was wearing. It was at that point that she contemplated suicide.

"He just drove me to that point where I didn't feel like I had any other escape," she said. "I was just over it. I didn't want to deal with it any more."

It was only when Aiken decided to go public with her story - a strikingly similar one to Johnston's - that she went to the police.

Grott, it transpired, had created an online identity based on photos stolen from a Melbourne pool cleaner, John Noonan, who is still trying to rebuild his reputation.

He told police he built the fake social media and dating profiles in order to monitor his own teenage daughters. "The last thing I wanted to do was hurt anyone," he claimed.

As well as posting naked pictures of Aiken online he racially abused the Jamaican netballer, who signed with the Queensland Firebirds in 2008.