A man tried ruining a person’s life by relentlessly harassing them online, federal prosecutors say. He’s now convicted of cyberstalking.

He smeared the North Carolina victim’s name by creating a fake LinkedIn profile pretending to be them, describing them as a child molester and a rapist on the account, court documents show.

LinkedIn is one of a few online platforms Christopher Kevin Morris, 45, of Texas, used to portray the person as a child molester, according to prosecutors. Additionally, prosecutors said this individual wasn’t Morris’ only victim.

A federal jury convicted Morris of cyberstalking Feb 17, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina announced Feb 21.

McClatchy News contacted Morris’ attorneys for comment Feb 22 and didn’t immediately receive a response.

The harassment against the victim escalated when Morris repeatedly and publicly posted source code, worth millions of dollars, that the person had worked on for six years as part of their job, according to officials.

The cyberstalking and harassment campaign

From July 2021 to October 2021, the victim, identified only as “K.L.”, was described as Morris’ main cyberstalking target, according to court documents.

Prosecutors detailed how Morris was set on ruining this person’s life after directing inappropriate statements to them on a forum that was viewed by other employees. When he wouldn’t apologise, Morris lost his job. It wasn’t specified where he previously worked.

As a result, Morris created fake email accounts and started emailing the victim’s co-workers, officials said.

Some of the emails appeared to be from a respected colleague and accused the victim of being a convicted child molester, according to prosecutors.

Other emails were of an overtly offensive nature, calling the victim a “queer”, saying they were “beat up a lot in high school” and accusing them of using racist language, a superseding indictment shows.

In addition to impersonating the victim on LinkedIn, Morris also created a fake GitHub account for them, according to the superseding indictment. GitHub is a code hosting website used by software developers.

On GitHub, Morris used the fake account to characterise the victim as a “sexual deviant who ‘love(s) having sex with small children’,” prosecutors said.

The platform was also used to post valuable source code fully owned by the victim’s boss, according to officials.

Two other people, who don’t live in North Carolina, were also harassed online by Morris, prosecutors said.

He sent all three of the victims harassing emails with ominous messages implying he was keeping tabs on them or their family, and made racist and offensive statements, according to officials.

One message sent to an unspecified victim called them a “dead man walking,” prosecutors said.

At a sentencing hearing scheduled in May, Morris could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and be ordered to pay a US$250,000 fine.

 - TNS