Public servant Steven Black, 30, sentenced on stalking charges after post-divorce drug spiral

Serial Canberra stalker Steven Black, 30, dodges more jail time after blaming his crimes on his post-divorce drug spiral

ACT law courts, file image, generic image, Canberra, Magistrates Court, Supreme Court.

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A public servant who served nearly two months behind bars after being arrested for stalking and harassing a woman will not see any more time inside a jail cell after blaming his stalking on a drug habit he developed after his wife left him.

Steven Black, 30, was handed a series of good behaviour bonds and suspended sentences in the ACT Magistrates Court on Tuesday after last year pleading guilty to a string of stalking, harassment charges.

Black, a former staffer at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet who hopes to one day be a lawyer, was suffering from a delusional disorder called erotomania, which deludes sufferers into thinking a person is in love with them.

He was later locked up in a psych ward for treatment, and has vowed to never go off his medication.

Magistrate Bernadette Boss accepted the condition could have been triggered by the MDMA habit he fell into after his wife left him.

“He made a choice to use drugs … and he made a choice to do something illegal,” Ms Boss said.

“Unfortunately, illegal drugs don’t come with a warning on the label.”

Prosecutors argued a jail sentence was the only appropriate sentence because of the distress Black’s “obsessive and unwanted” harassment had caused his victim over months.

The court heard the woman was left feeling helpless, scared and avoided going out in public for fear she might run into Black.

Ms Boss said Black’s offending was linked to his mental health, and she couldn’t use his sentencing to deter other would be stalkers.

She said his drug use has likely resulted in “a lifetime of difficulties that you do doubt did not intend”.

Ms Boss said the community had to be protected from offenders such as Black, and said his actions had caused “significant issues” for his victims.

She said jail time was the only appropriate sentence for the two stalking charges, but suspended his three month jail terms after time already served.

She also sentenced Black to 12 month good behaviour orders on the four harassment charges.