A Maryland man is facing years behind bars after he was charged with cyberstalking his ex-girlfriend, including bombarding her with over 800 calls in two days.
Derik Wayne Bowers, 44, of Hagerstown, was charged on Monday with one count of cyberstalking for allegedly harassing his former partner through text messages, phone calls and via Facebook, the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of West Virginia said.
In December 2022, Bowers called his ex — who lives in Morgan County, WV — 815 times over a two-day period, the prosecutor claimed.
He also reportedly sent her thousands of text messages over several months, and “used social media posts to embarrass her and interfere with her livelihood.”
If convicted, Bowers faces up to five years in prison.
“Cyberstalking is a pervasive problem that we treat very seriously in West Virginia,” US Attorney William Ihlenfeld said in the official statement.
“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.”
The charges come after a man in the UK earlier this month was sentenced to 17 weeks’ imprisonment for harassing a BBC presenter over Facebook.
During her emotional victim statement, presenter Alexis Green said she “can’t remember feeling such a dark time in my life.”
“[The stalking] has made me feel less confident in every aspect of my life,” she added.