Police staffer, online stalker Caitlin Schiavone sent innocent man to jail, court hears

A tearful Victoria Police adviser ­appeared in court clutching a stuffed toy for a committal hearing which heard the qualified lawyer allegedly exchanged between 13,000 and 15,000 messages with the man.

Victoria Police adviser Caitlin Schiavone leaves the Melbourne Magistrates Court. Picture: Mohammad Alfares

A Victoria Police adviser has faced court accused of impersonating a police officer, perjury, perverting the course of justice and Facebook hacking in an alleged stalking spree that led to a man she was ­obsessed with being arrested and wrongly jailed for 18 days.

A tearful Caitlin Schiavone ­appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court clutching a stuffed toy during a committal hearing last week on 14 offences that included theft, making a false report to police and dishonestly receiving stolen goods.

The three-day committal heard evidence Ms Schiavone, a qualified lawyer and unsworn Victoria Police employee, allegedly exchanged between 13,000 and 15,000 social media messages with the man.

Most of the messages were sent by 30-year-old Ms Schiavone to the man, whose identity has been redacted from the charge sheets released by the court to The Australian.

An unidentified woman was also a victim of the alleged offences committed between March and May 2023, the charge sheets ­reveal.

Ms Schiavone is alleged to have accessed the man’s Facebook ­account and used that to send messages to herself, purporting to be from him.

She is then accused of using those messages to lodge complaints against him to police.

“Part of the alleged offence is that the accused is obsessed with their relationship,” informant Elise Douglas, from the force’s specialist sexual offences and family violence squad, told the three-day committal hearing.

“The accused’s messages significantly outnumber the ones from (the alleged victim).”

According to the charge sheets, Ms Schiavone is alleged to have perverted the course of justice in Docklands on April 17 last year by “fabricating evidence against (redacted) by sending a Facebook Messenger message to herself, purporting to be (redacted) and then reporting this contact to Victoria Police, causing (redacted) to be arrested and remanded in custody”. One of the messages, the court heard, was 750 words long.

The committal hearing, before magistrate Nahrain Warda, heard that as a result of the alleged fabrication of evidence, the man was remanded in custody for 18 days.

Caitlin Schiavone, right, leaves the Melbourne Magistrates Court. Picture: Mohammad Alfares

Police allege that between March 14 and May 5, 2023, Ms Schiavone “did stalk another person namely (redacted) by engaging in a course of conduct which included accessing his (redacted) database account, accessing his social media and sending messages to herself, accessing his personal email account and accessing his personal documents, namely charge sheets, and sending them to third parties, and falsely reporting (redacted) to police, causing (redacted) to be remanded in custody, arousing apprehension or fear in (redacted) for his safety”.

Ms Schiavone is also charged with stalking a woman, whose name has been redacted from charge sheets, between March 13 and May 1, 2023.

“The accused did stalk another person (redacted) by engaging in a course of conduct which included accessing her personal details via the (redacted) database, contacting (redacted) social media ­accounts and contacting (redacted) by phone on multiple occasions via messaging and calls, arousing apprehension or fear in the victim for her own safety,” the charge sheets state.

Ms Schiavone is also alleged to have impersonated a police officer at Collingwood on April 6, 2023. She also allegedly stole an iPhone XR valued at $1000 on March 9.

Her defence counsel, Catherine Jones Williams, described the case as an “extremely serious matter”.

Ms Schiavone has pleaded not guilty to all charges. She was a member of the force’s capability department, which has a policy and legislative role in supporting the delivery of frontline police services.

In a key piece of evidence tested during the committal, the court heard that Ms Schiavone allegedly provided Victoria Police with a digital photograph as evidence of an assault. Prosecutors allege that on May 16, 2023, she submitted a USB containing an image purportedly showing a tattooed arm with bruising.

A forensic document examiner’s analysis suggested that this image was a cropped version of an earlier photograph found in Ms Schiavone’s mobile phone.

The forensic expert testified that the image submitted to police had been zoomed in on or enhanced to focus on the bruising.

Ms Jones Williams, however, questioned the reliability of the forensic evidence, arguing that the analysis involved subjective interpretation without error-rate studies specific to image enhancement, making it unreliable for a conviction.

She also questioned a police officer about whether they had misheard Ms Schiavone allegedly claim to be a police officer. The police officer disputed this was possible and maintained they had heard Ms Schiavone say the words.

Ms Warda said there was sufficient weight to support a conviction and committed Ms Schiavone to stand trial in the County Court on December 11.

“In my view, the evidence as it stands for charge 14 is a strong circumstantial case, and I’m satisfied any jury properly instructed could convict,” Ms Warda said.

Ms Schiavone has been bailed on the condition she resides at a particular address in Melbourne, does not travel outside the state or make contact with any witnesses other than the police informant.

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