David Geoffrey Howard: Manager at Miami finance outfit guilty of stalking ex-partner
The head of operations for a Gold Coast-based online lender has admitted to stalking his ex-girlfriend for three months following their break-up, including creating 38 email addresses to haunt her.
The head of operations for a Gold Coast-based online lender has admitted to stalking his ex-girlfriend for three months following their break-up, with his desperate actions including creating 38 email addresses to haunt her.
Southport man David Geoffrey Howard, 55, appeared in Southport District Court on November 28, where he pleaded guilty to unlawful stalking in the context of a domestic relationship.
The court heard the stalking occurred between October 15, 2023 and January 20, 2024 and involved a woman Howard dated between approximately January 2022 and May 2023.
Crown prosecutor Nathan Tuttle told the court Howard contacted the complainant regularly between their break-up and the start of the stalking period in a bid to patch things up, but the woman finally brought this to an end with a firm request via email that they cease all contact.
It was then the woman’s nightmare commenced.
Mr Tuttle told the court Howard, over the next three months, created 38 different email addresses to bombard her inbox with 442 emails, left her 151 voicemails of varying lengths, and also sent 256 electronic bank transfers with wheedling messages in the transaction description.
The emails, Mr Tuttle said, were often accompanied by pictures of Howard and the woman in happier times, but they were also punctuated by more sinister attachments, such as intimate pictures of the complainant alongside threats by Howard to distribute them.
At one point he thanked her for her “slutty photos” and said he planned on using them to “make lots of money”.
The woman reported the behaviour to police on January 19, 2024, and Howard was charged a few months later on July 6.
Howard’s ex-partner tuned into the courtroom remotely to provide a victim impact statement.
She said over the offending period, her heart would “race” whenever she heard her phone ping, and she had many sleepless nights where she “lay awake afraid of what he may do next”.
“I carried an unbearable weight of shame and embarrassment,” she said.
The court heard Howard had no Queensland criminal history and his guilty plea was considered early.
Defence counsel Matthew Hynes told the court his client, a father of three who is in a new relationship, was now engaged in psychology via a mental health care plan and was also enrolled in a rehabilitative program via the Gold Coast Domestic Violence Prevention Centre.
Mr Hynes conceded there was an “egregious” amount of contact between his client and the complainant, but stressed the contact ceased almost immediately after the woman made a criminal complaint.
The barrister urged Judge Nathan Jarro to not record a conviction, as to do so would risk Howard falling afoul of corporate regulator ASIC in his role as head of operations for a Miami-based online lender.
Judge Jarro sentenced Howard to two years’ probation, with no conviction recorded.
Howard agreed to the making of a five-year restraining order between him and the complainant.
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Originally published as David Geoffrey Howard: Manager at Miami finance outfit guilty of stalking ex-partner
