Woman jailed for staging her own kidnap and harassing ex-boyfriend online
Jessica Nordquist left former partner feeling ‘unsafe in his own home’ during bizarre abuse campaign
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A woman who orchestrated an online harassment campaign against her ex-boyfriend, before lying about being pregnant and even staging a fake kidnapping, has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.
Jessica Nordquist had been working for an east London PR firm when she met colleague Mark Weeks in July last year.
However, the US national started a programme of abuse against Mr Weeks after their brief relationship ended, sending messages to his clients accusing him of rape and setting up at least 20 Instagram accounts to post similar claims online.
The 26-year-old, originally from Alaska, even went as far as to buy a fake baby bump on Amazon to convince her victim she was pregnant, before going to elaborate efforts to make others believe she had been kidnapped.
She was jailed at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Wednesday after being found guilty of stalking, sending malicious communications and perverting the course of justice during a five-week trial in October.
Sentencing, Judge Paul Southern told Nordquist he believed her behaviour was caused by childhood trauma, noting friends had claimed her actions were “wholly out of character”.
“You are an intelligent, resourceful and well educated young woman with no previous convictions. You came to the UK to advance your career in the company,” he said.
“This has been lost because of what you have done. That potential for advancement in the company has been extinguished.
“I have described your behaviour as bizarre. It's very unsurprising that police asked for you to undergo a mental health assessment when they arrested you.
“I am satisfied that your early traumatic experiences has shaped your personality. That does not excuse or justify your offending behaviour, but it does help to explain it.”
Tyrone Silcott, prosecuting, told the court Nordquist had undergone a “sad descent” between December 2017 and April 2018.
She began sending malicious texts and emails, including messages to colleagues and clients at PR agency Unruly - where she worked as a campaign manager - making unfounded claims the company had staged a “rape cover-up”.
The court heard how friends and family of Mr Weeks were also targeted as Nordquist’s abuse started to escalate.
Reading a victim impact statement to the court, Mr Silcott said the harassment left Mr Weeks feeling “unsafe in his own home”.
“He was constantly scared and on the edge about what might happened next to him,” he added.
“He mentions specific occasions where he would receive a text from an unknown number saying he was being watched and his home was being watched.”
The defendant's increasingly unpredictable behaviour culminated in April, with what the judge described as a “bizarre” attempt to fake her own kidnapping.
An email purporting to be from a criminal group was sent to Nordquist’s family, friends and colleagues - containing pictures of her naked, bound and gagged - claiming she had been kidnapped.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police then visited her flat in Whitechapel, east London, where they found a disturbed scene and a kidnap note pinned to her front door.
Two days later, police traced Nordquist safe and well to a bed and breakfast in Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands, where she gave officers a false name and discarded two mobile phones in a toilet bin when she was taken to a doctor to ensure she was fit to be detained.
Exactly what she had been hoping to achieve by carrying out the plot is still unknown, Met Police investigators said in a statement released after sentencing.
Nordquist was jailed for two years and six months for the stalking charges and a further two years over the kidnapping incident, while a two-year sentence for malicious communications will run concurrently.
She will serve at least half of her sentence behind bars and will also be subject to an indefinite restraining order banning her from communicating with Mr Weeks and Unruly HR manager Olivia Goodman.
Additional reporting by agencies