Man arrested for stalking woman who rejected him; calls her using 44 phone numbers
Trigger warning: This article contains mentions of suicide.
A student from the United Kingdom was jailed after stalking and harassing a woman who has rejected him after their first date.
The Chinese man, identified as Kaichen Ma, is a 21-year-old student from Durham University and has left the woman (who was not named) traumatized by his ‘obsessive, persistent' behavior. After being blocked multiple times, Ma still tried to contact his victim using 44 different phone numbers.
According to the Daily Mail report, Ma and his victim met in September 2022, where they exchanged contacts and decided to go on a date. During the meet-up, Ma reportedly tried to kiss and hold her arms as he was walking her home.
The woman felt it was off and said she was uninterested, explaining he was too forward.
Since then, Ma allegedly bombarded her with messages even after he was blocked. Instead, he insistently tried calling her using 44 phone numbers.
Additionally, he also attended her subjects despite not being in the same class. He also consistently gave unwanted gifts, including a plane ticket to his hometown in China.
Ma also sent prejudicial statements about her religion being a Muslim, and had also sent her a kilo of pork.
These actions left her victim traumatized, refusing to leave her dormitory. She also reportedly had a hard time sleeping and even suffered from mental breakdowns.
He was arrested on December 1, admitting to “stalking and attempting to pervert the course of justice.” He was granted bail on the condition to never approach his victim.
However, despite being prohibited, he still messaged his victim asking for “mercy.” He even offered to bargain for them to become “friends with benefits,” describing it as a “win-win” situation. Other messages also include threats about him committing suicide if she will report him violating his bail condition.
He was later arrested on January 30. According to the report, Judge James Adkin sentenced Ma to 28 months of imprisonment, he would also “serve half in custody and should then be deported.” The young Chinese man was also given a restraining order, banning him from contacting his victim for 15 years.
His lawyer Katie Spence, described Ma as “socially immature” for wrongly handling rejection. However, Spence said that Ma is “incredibly remorseful,” realizing he “absolutely behaved improperly.”
Meanwhile, his victim has sought counseling.