A depraved stalker who uploaded hundreds of photos of a woman to an online sex forum has been brought to justice – after she caught him in the act.

Charlie Parker, from Westgate-on-Sea, harassed his terrified victim for seven years, leaving her feeling unsafe in her own home, where she installed panic alarms and security cameras.

Canterbury Crown Court heard last week how Parker, 33, encouraged others to perform sex acts while looking at the photos he shared on the website.

The “obsessed” father-of-two, who worked in security, also posted her private information including her address, contact details and car registration number. This led to her receiving vile emails from anonymous accounts.

The woman, who KentOnline is not naming, had thought Parker was responsible but was unable to produce any evidence.

But he was finally snared after she literally caught him with his pants down when she recognised his jumper in one of the graphic pictures.

The court heard how the campaign of harassment started in 2012 when the victim started being sent disturbing messages.

Peter Forbes, prosecuting, said: “She began receiving emails to her personal email address which would include a photo consisting of someone holding a picture of her face while masturbating.

“In the message they would ask, ‘Is this you?’, ‘Is this your address?’”

Unbeknown to her at the time, Parker, of Linksfield Road, had uploaded pictures of her, her underwear and some pictures including her children, to an illicit chat room.

“He had made contact with people online and encouraged them to masturbate over her photo and make contact with her,” added the prosecutor.

Deeply upset by the messages, the woman contacted police – but as the emails were untraceable, there was little that could be done initially to track down the individual responsible.

She shut down the email address, but almost immediately started receiving phone calls and later WhatsApp messages with similarly disgusting content.

“I was even scared to take the kids to school and pick them up...”

Some messages would include her face superimposed onto a naked female body, others would feature her face alongside a penis.

Although horrified by the unwanted communication, she felt powerless to stop it and came to ignore the messages.

In 2019, she received a phone call from a stranger who told her that he knew she had recently moved house.

He also alerted her to a website where her information and photos had been posted.

Mr Forbes said: “She discovered hundreds of pictures of herself dating back to 2012.”

Searching through the photos, some of which had thousands of views, she came across one which showed a pair of her shoes alongside a man’s penis.

Recognising the jumper the man was wearing, she was able to identify him as Parker.

Police arrested Parker in 2019 and, after seizing his mobile phone, confirmed that he had been uploading the woman’s photographs and private information.

In a victim impact statement the woman said she had long suspected Parker was the one behind the harassment but had no evidence.

“When I think about him I feel sick...”

“When this first started happening I began to feel unsafe in my own home,” she said.

“I had CCTV cameras, alarms and panic buttons in my house and I became mistrusting of people as I had no idea who was trying to contact me.

“I was even scared to take the kids to school and pick them up.”

She described how although she was not physically touched, she was disgusted by the photos and felt that she needed a wash.

“The whole thing has been awful,” she added.

“Sometimes I feel scared. When I think about him I feel sick.”

Parker, who appeared in court wearing a tank top, had pleaded guilty to the charge of stalking involving serious harm or distress at the first opportunity.

Mitigating, barrister James Burke said that Parker has psychological problems but that he was taking steps to try to improve himself.

“A professional opinion, on the balance of probability, [is that] the defendant does have emotionally unstable personality traits emanating from a traumatic childhood,” explained Mr Burke.

“He knows that he has some serious issues that need to be addressed and he’s assessed at being at a low risk of reoffending.

“He is a man of previous good character with a good employment record – he’s currently a security team leader.”

But given the seriousness of his crime, Recorder Amy Nicholson ordered Parker must go directly to prison.

“On the face of it, you were contributing positively to society and living a law-abiding life,” said Recorder Nicholson.

“But sadly the truth of it is that for almost seven years you committed a campaign of harassment.

“You had developed an insidious sexually obsession with your victim which put your victim and her children at great risk.”

The Recorder said it was impossible to imagine the woman's fear while knowing an "unknown stranger [was] in her midst - bent on trying to ruin her life".

She acknowledged that Parker had a difficult upbringing, but added that had he not been caught, he likely would have continued his reign of intimidation.

The Recorder added: “Why you did what you did, only you know. You appear to have very little regret and I cannot credit you with genuine remorse.

“I cannot consider anything other than a sentence of immediate custody.”

Parker was shaking and whimpering as his punishment was read out on Thursday.

He was given a prison term of 34 months and an indefinite restraining order not to contact his victim, go to her address, take any photograph of her or upload any of her information to the internet.