Kate Ritchie’s chilling stalker experience as man arrested after star is forced to call the cops

A man hounded Kate Ritchie with hundreds of explicit texts and pictures before jetting across the country to hunt down the star.

Former Home and Away star Kate Ritchie was forced to call the police after a man who harassed her flew from Perth to hunt her down, a court heard last week.

Ritchie reportedly rang NSW Police last week when she received a message from Gerard Ryan, 71, which said he was in the suburb where she lives and was planning on finding her.

Kate Ritchie. Picture: Matrix.

According to The Daily Telegraph, the man had sent “hundreds” of sexually explicit messages from February 2022 through to April 2023, including “numerous naked photographs of the accused and numerous videos of the accused masturbating”.

The man was arrested in Sydney’s eastern suburbs last Wednesday after Ritchie called the police and was charged with stalking, which he has since pleaded guilty to.

According to police facts seen by The Daily Telegraph, Ryan had said he wanted to marry Ritchie and claimed he would be “a good stepfather”.

During his efforts to contact Ritchie, Ryan posted messages of a sexual nature about Ritchie on his own social media pages.

When she didn’t respond, he sent “hundreds” of direct messages to the actress-turned-radio presenter.

One message read: “I just want to kiss you my heart is pounding for you I love you madly”.

Following his arrest and guilty plea, Ryan was sentenced to a 12 month Conditional Release Order and an AVO states he must not go within 500m of Ritchie’s home or workplace.

The man pleaded guilty and will face further charges if he attempts to contact Ritchie again. Picture from Matrix.

Meanwhile, late last year, Ritchie called out online scammers who have used her image to sell weight loss products.

In the hoax advertisement, the scammers overlaid Ritchie’s image with the text, “Ladies, I didn’t expect that my weight loss...” and the accompanying caption read, “I couldn’t lose weight for a long time.”

The former Home and Away star shared the screenshot on her Instagram page, urging her followers to condemn the scam business and report it.

“THIS POST OR ANYTHING LIKE IT IS FAKE,” she wrote alongside the screenshot. “I am sorry to all the people who have believed this rubbish of me selling KETO GUMMIES or ANY KIND OF QUICK FIX WEIGHTLOSS PLAN!” “Please share this post (from the real me) to your own socials on Insta and FB and feel free to report the numerous versions of FAKES floating around out there. Oh. And a big thank you to everyone who has notified me asking questions.”

It appears Ritchie isn’t the only Aussie celebrity who has been caught up in the scam. Beloved actress Rebecca Gibney said her image was also used without her knowledge to promote the dangerous weight loss gummies.

Originally published as Kate Ritchie’s chilling stalker experience as man arrested after star is forced to call the cops