A Biddeford man accused of using the Internet to terrorize a former girlfriend was sentenced Tuesday to 22 months in York County Jail as part of a plea agreement.
Shawn Sayer, 40, was arrested in July after being accused of posting erotic images of his ex-girlfriend on the Internet and inviting men to visit her apartment or workplace for kinky sex.
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The woman told of relentless harassment, saying he tracked her down even after she changed her name and moved to Louisiana.
The plea agreement between Sayer and prosecutors saw him get the maximum sentence for violating bail conditions – six months – and consecutive sentences of eight months each for two cases of violating a protection order.
The nature of the sentence allows Sayer to serve the time in county jail, which Assistant District Attorney John Burke said will make it easier to ensure he does not repeat the conduct.
The agreement also ensured prosecutors would not bring additional charges, Burke said, though he would not say what those charges might have been.
The state did submit a statement indicating that the agreement does not preclude any other jurisdiction from bringing charges for the same or similar conduct. Investigators said Sayer could face federal charges because some of the conduct crossed state lines.
Burke praised the persistence of the Computer Crimes Unit in investigating Sayer and leading to Tuesday’s conviction.
“This is a case of just relentless, dogged police work,” Burke said. “The only reason this case even went forward at all is because the State Police took this victim seriously and didn’t let a lead go untouched.”
Police say Sayer posted fake personals online that encouraged men to go to his victim’s apartment or workplace. In the first instance, the woman says she was groped in a dark hallway before running to a friend’s apartment.
Police say Sayer was able to dodge the law by using a laptop computer and connecting to unsecured wireless networks at different locations in the Biddeford-Saco area. That way, when police issued subpoenas for Internet records after a fake personal ad was posted, the trail dead-ended at the owner of the wireless network.
Police ultimately coordinated the time of some of the postings through the wireless networks with security video taken in the area.
Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at: dhench@pressherald.com
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