VIC AVO against ex and he is now adding all my friends and family and work colleagues to Facebook

[KKaren]

I parted with my daughter’s father 14 years ago. There is no contact between himself and us. I have full parental responsibility and there is no access.

I have an AVO against him that prohibits him from contacting me, my work or using other people to contact me.

He has recently gone on a campaign of trying to add my friends, family and work colleagues to Facebook. These people are unknown to him. He has never met them. He could only have found out their names by creating fake Facebook profiles and seeing posts other people tagged me in, to get there names.

Is this is breach of the AVO?

He doesn’t know our new address and I feel he’s trying to get it.

Obviously I have deleted all my social media, but my concern is that I can’t delete what other people post & he is clearly surveilling me.

There are currently Family Court proceedings.

He has previously breached the AVO (four tones) and it’s never gone to court. He makes excuses and the police say unless he actually turns up and assaults me it never will.

How can this be legal? Can he keep doing this?

 

[sammy01]

Just checking - There is an avo on him right now? Generally these things only last a few yrs? if you partied years ago I doubt there would be a relevant avo still in existence?

But let's assume I'm wrong...

I reckon the cops are being a bit lazy. That said, clicking on a public facebook post isn't stalking - well kinda. See he isn't breaking the law is he? He is simply taking advantage of the fact that the laws have not kept up with technology. So the cops realise that they're gonna struggle to make any charges stick, if all he has done is click on a public webpage.

 

[KKaren]

The AVO is current.

He hasn’t just clicked on a public page. He’s actually tracked people down and added them to harass me. He doesn’t know there people.

The AVO specifically prohibits him from using other people to contact me.

Might try a different police station.

He’s adding friends of my friends and family members!

 

[Jake Matherson]

Without seeing it i'm assuming the AVO likely says something along the lines of.

Mr X must not contact or try to contact Mrs Y directly or indirectly.

Has he specifically asked the people you mention to contact you?
For example. Hey Mr Z can you tell Mrs Y I would like to see my child. Clearly that would be an attempt at contact and a breach.

If not, and its just a fake FB account adding a bunch of people and never saying anything to them so that he can look at public posts you or other make he could probably argue that he never attempted to contact you even if the police were able to prove the fake account was his as he never said anything to anyone.

Anything that you/anyone posts online despite how secure you think you are is to be assumed public at all times.

Just thinking out loud. Not on anyone's side.

 

[KKaren]

It’s not a fake account. It his real account. Again, I’m not concerned about what I post but others.

 

[KKaren]

It says he’s not allowed to attempt to locate me.

 

[Jake Matherson]

I understand what you're saying and am simply playing devils advocate and trying to think at it from the other side.

Couple split up all the time and remain friends with family and friends from the other side.
If the police came knocking he would say something along those lines and without any direct messages attempting to locate you the police might find it difficult to do anything about it.

Regardless if he never was actually friends with them he will make up those stories because that's what people do and that's probably why the police haven't been as helpful as you would like. Too difficult and expensive for them to make anything stick.

When I was in social medial lock down I spoke with all my friends and family and made sure all of them were aware that I wanted to have no trace on line. Posts, tags, photos, etc.
Yeah it's difficult to stop your mates posting a picture of you at the pub with them so you just have to polity ask them to take it down as quick as possible.

If you genuinely fear for yourself of course contact the police otherwise you just need to document everything in as clear of a manner as possible and present It to the police once you have a catalogue of stuff not just one FB friend request.

Not a lawyer. Just a bloke chucking in his thoughts.

 

[KKaren]

He has NEVER met these people. This split was over 14 years ago. I didn’t know many of these people then. He never met my cousins. He can’t claim anything. This man is an insane & dangerous individual. I’m not worried about anything I have posted. I am concerned he’s trying to track down my, or my daughter’s location which may be possible. BTW I wasn’t even on Facebook with my actual name, he’s had to dig deep to find this information.

 

[Atticus]

He has recently gone on a campaign of trying to add my friends, family and work colleagues to Facebook. These people are unknown to him. He has never met them. ..

Is this is breach of the AVO?

It may be worth reporting to police so it's on record, but I agree with others that you are probably going to be hard pressed to get police action on this...When talking about technology-facilitated stalking and abuse in the context of social media they mention HACKING into a persons account to discover information about them, or to impersonate them.. That's not what is happening here.

Can understand why your'e upset and concerned by this though. I guess all you can do at this point is alert friends and work colleagues not to accept friend requests if that's what's happening

 

[Scruff]

Turn the tables by blocking him.

1. Ask any friends/family that have accepted friend requests to "unfriend" him.
2. Ask everyone you know to add him to their ignore list (or whatever Facebook calls it). That should block any further communication from him - at least from his legit account.
3. Ask everyone not to friend people they don't know - that's just asking for trouble anyway. When they receive friend requests from people they don't know, add the user to their ignore list instead - at least in the short term.

The whole point of this is to have all of his online antics fail with no response from anyone.

If he continues, lodge a complaint directly with Facebook - that is if you can find out how to contact them. (Facebook is notorious for not making their contact details known to the public or their users.)

In regard to trying a different Police station, try the local Detectives office first. Don't call - go in and see them in person. Without meaning any disrespect, general duties cops are pretty much useless when it comes to this sort of thing.