My stalker tricked random men into turning up at house for sex

"How can you look someone in the eye and say you love them, then harass them online?

Kimberley first met Declan Guess when she was 15 years old.

The pair went to school together, before Guess moved away from mainstream schooling due to his own anxiety.

While physically away from each other, they reconnected over Facebook and had been chatting for five months before meeting again in person and starting a relationship.

But within one week, Guess began stalking her online, which years later culminated in random men turning up at Kimberley's family home expecting "fun and sex".

Now 24, Kimberley - whose real name has been changed to protect her identity - is coming to terms with the aftermath of the unravelling of a campaign of online abuse that stretched back almost 10 years.

Speaking to the BBC, Kimberley said messages from fake accounts started when she was still 15, from people who said they thought she was pretty, but quickly they became sexual in nature, calling for the underage teenager to meet multiple boys for group sex, and asking for explicit pictures and later videos to be sent.

"I didn't know it was [Guess] harassing me through fake accounts," Kimberley said. "I uploaded a picture for the new year and they said that I looked really pretty and stuff.

"They kept saying 'just send one picture and we'll leave you alone', but they didn't. Under the pressure they made me send more, threatening to share them."

Kimberley would then confide in Guess about the messages, and he would encourage her not to speak to her family - and to bow to the demands of those messaging her online.

"At the time he was comforting me, but he was actually encouraging it as well," Kimberley said.

As well as manipulating her online, Guess also threatened to harm himself. Kimberley said: "He said if I ever broke up with him, he'd kill himself."

Meanwhile, the continued and sustained abuse was taking a toll on Kimberley, with her struggling with her physical and mental health.

Kimberley said: "I'd gone down to about six stone. But I was too scared to share it.

"I tried to commit suicide, and [Guess] pinned me down to stop me, even though he was the one harassing me.

"He would tell me not to self‑harm, but he didn't stop harassing me. I suppose self-harm is not going to look good in the images - so it makes sense now."

As her health declined, Kimberley eventually showed her family the accounts.

Once the family learned about them, they began to suspect Guess was involved.

But Kimberley was initially unwilling to believe it.

The accusation blew the family apart, with Kimberley running away to Guess's home for two weeks in the run-up to Christmas.

Her family then asked her to test their suspicions, by not telling Guess about a new account that had been in contact.

Guess then let slip that he knew about the messaging by talking about the account.

Kimberley did eventually split up with Guess after a year together, and was keen to move on with her life.

Within a month, fake accounts continued contacting her, with the intimate images previously sent by Kimberley to the accounts starting to be posted online and shared around to her friends, to her family, to her neighbours.

Her family believe about 5,000 accounts contacted Kimberley, with threats and demands for more images.

Accounts were contacting her family's workplaces, and even pubs in her neighbourhood she had never visited.

These incidents were reported to police, but with nothing to connect them to Guess, little action could be taken.

Kimberley's mother Sally - whose real name has been changed to protect her identity - said the family "didn't think much of it" after the first visit to the house by a strange man years after her daughter's relationship with Guess ended.

"The person who knocked was quite young, in his 20s, and they just asked for Kimberley and looked quite uncomfortable," she said.

Sally forgot about the encounter until about a month later when a letter was pushed through the door.

"It was handwritten, from a man. He'd come to my house in the middle of the day, wanting sex," she said. "He made that clear in the letter.

"When Kimberley's dad got home, we checked the CCTV, which showed him coming to the house. I made a report to the police."

But while investigations began, the callers kept coming.

"Someone turned up at two in the morning," Sally said. "One pretended to sell whisky when he realised something wasn't quite right."

Sally eventually made the decision to confront one of the visitors, and what she learned was chilling.

She said: "It was about five months later - a young lad turned up quite late at night.

"I was angry, I said 'she does not live here and I know why you're here'.

"He got out his phone and started showing me multiple platforms, where Kimberley was basically advertised as a prostitute.

"I went online and there was a picture of my house, my address, and underneath it says 'hi, my name is Kimberley. If you'd like to have fun and sex, this is my address'.

Each house visit was reported by Sally to the police, whose inquiries eventually led them to an array of email addresses, which had been used to create the social media profiles across a range of platforms advertising Kimberley for sex, with technology used to mask their source.

But on one profile, a familiar name had been used. In just one instance, Guess had used his own email address.

Guess was eventually tracked down to Lincolnshire and arrested last year.

Kimberley has been told by police that what was eventually found on Guess's devices may show that other vulnerable young girls may have been targeted in a similar way.

When officers seized his phone, they discovered a quantity of intimate images of the victim, indecent images of other children as well as images depicting bestiality.

During the investigation, more than 500 indecent images of children were discovered across his devices, Leicestershire Police said.

In August last year, a stalking protection order was issued by the courts, banning him from having any form of contact with Kimberley, in person, online or through a third party.

By September, he had started following the victim on Instagram, in breach of the order.

He was also made subject to a restraining order, a sexual harm prevention order and will be placed on the sex offenders register.

Investigating officer PC Kate Butler said: "The impact these offences have had on the victim are immense. Her whole life was turned upside down.

"This has been an extremely complex investigation, and we thank the victim and her family for their courage in reporting what they had been through and we hope this reassures the wider community that we do take these offences seriously and will use our powers to bring people to justice.

"We also believe there may be other victims of Guess, who for whatever reason have not reported offences to us, we would urge you to get in touch."

Reflecting on the family's ordeal, Kimberley said: "It does make it quite hard for me to trust people.

"How can you look someone in the eye and say you love them, then harass them online?"

But she hopes publicity of the case may encourage other potential victims to come forward.

Sally added: "It's not easy to tell somebody, but it's a start. Kimberley's been through 10 years of hell, you have to be strong, tell somebody you trust, go to the police, and get justice."