37-year-old man will be the first to be charged under anti-stalking law
The accused will be prosecuted under the new Section 507A of the Penal Code at Shah Alam Court within the next two days - FILE PIX
The Star reported that the accused had allegedly stalked and sexually harassed a prominent female photographer over the span of several years. He reportedly sent explicit images of himself and even tracked her to the United Kingdom.
Petaling Jaya Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mohamad Fakhrudin Abdul Hamid, disclosed that the man will be prosecuted under the new Section 507A of the Penal Code.
"He is scheduled to appear in the Shah Alam court within the next two days to answer these charges," he stated in the report
As per the updated Section 507A of the Penal Code, stalking encompasses repetitive acts of harassment intended to cause distress, alarm, or fear for someone's safety.
In a series of tweets in July, Acacia Diana shared her experience of being stalked and sexually harassed by the same man for nearly eight years.
She recounted that the harassment started in 2016 when she was maintaining a travel and project documentation blog and started receiving bizarre comments on her posts.
A year later, Acacia stated that she was approached by a "creepy man" while dining at a restaurant with a friend. He expressed his appreciation for her work.
"I thanked him and asked him to leave us alone," she tweeted.
She further stated that while she was pursuing studies in the United Kingdom in November, her family informed her that an individual had visited her house and told her father he wished to befriend her.
Diana indicated that during her stay in the UK last December, she discovered that the suspect had followed her there and even enrolled in a class she was attending.
She also alleged that the suspect sent her explicit messages on Instagram, including explicit images of himself masturbating. This harassment has been continuing up until April of this year.
The man was apprehended in the United Kingdom and investigated but was subsequently released on bail. Acacia claimed that the UK police intended to charge him with sexual harassment and stalking, but he left for Malaysia and did not attend his court date.
