A man from Hagerstown, Maryland is facing up to five years in prison after he called his ex-girlfriend over 800 times over two days.
As the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of West Virginia revealed, 44-year-old Derik Wayne Bowers has been charged with one count of stalking by a Martinsburg federal grand jury. In December 2022, Bowers harassed his ex-girlfriend through messages online, text messages, and phone calls. At one point, he tried to call her 815 times in the space of just 48 hours. He also attempted to embarrass her with various public posts shared on social media, court documents allege.
“Cyberstalking is a pervasive problem that we treat very seriously in West Virginia,” said United States Attorney William Ihlenfeld. “I encourage those who are being intimidated online and who suffer substantial emotional distress as a result to file a police report so that wrongdoers may be investigated and held to account.” If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison.
The indictment against Wayne Bowers comes just weeks after a 55-year-old British man was sentenced to three months in prison for stalking a BBC presenter. As The Advertiser & Times reported this month, Timothy O’Brien sent presenter Alexis Green over 100 harassing messages on Facebook in December and January. She said that he sent her unsolicited explicit images and videos on the platform, and repeatedly propositioned her for sex. “If you don’t block me, I will take that as a yes,” he wrote in one of the messages.
