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Prato Court Convicts Woman and Son in Catfishing, Revenge Porn and Stalking Case

The first-instance ruling follows a five-year probe that traced a fake-profile scheme into real-world harassment with lasting harm to the victims.

Overview

  • The Tribunal of Prato found the Lombardy-based woman guilty of revenge porn, defamation, stalking and identity substitution and imposed a prison term in a first-instance verdict.
  • Her adult son, identified as having created fake social profiles and aided the surveillance, was also convicted as an accomplice and received a custodial sentence.
  • Investigators from the Polizia Postale used IP addresses, phone numbers and social media message analysis to identify the pair after reports from the targeted couple.
  • According to trial reporting, intimate chats and images were gathered via a fabricated online persona and then circulated to the man’s partner, relatives, friends and colleagues, including by registered mail.
  • Coverage describes an escalation from online deception to physical tailing in Prato and Florence, significant psychological harm to the victims and a relationship that ultimately did not survive the ordeal.