A female stalker who made fake pornography of her therapist, falsely accused her of being a sex offender and bombarded her with hundreds of vile messages has avoided jail.
Leah Dipnall set up social media accounts claiming the workplace of mental health therapist Katie Cooling was a ‘nonce house’ where staff groomed residents for sex, a court has heard.
The 24-year-old stalker also changed the online description of Ms Cooling’s private therapy business to ‘sex toy shop’ and on one day alone sent 187 emails saying ‘die b****’.
Dipnall became ‘fixated’ with Ms Cooling after she moved out of a domestic abuse hostel in Stockport, where the victim worked, in October 2021. She pleaded guilty to stalking at an earlier hearing and has been sentenced to two years in prison, suspended two years.
Miss Cooling, who is believed to have now changed her name, told the court she was so terrified that she considered taking her own life. She has left her job and moved to another part of the UK. A restraining order was issued against Dipnall, banning any contact with her victim.
Leah Dipnall (pictured), who made sick fake porn pictures of her therapist, bombarded her with hundreds of ‘derogatory and grossly offensive’ messages and drove her to the to the brink of suicide, has avoided jail
Dipnall had met Ms Cooling in November 2020 after being referred to the Stockport Without Abuse charity, Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard. She left the refuge in October the following year but just three days later set up a Facebook account called ‘Stockport Without Abuse Sex Ring’ in a false name, disclosed the refuge’s confidential location and wrongly claimed it hosted orgies.
Between October 11 and November 27 2021, Dipnall sent Ms Cooling hundreds of emails, social media messages, letters and cards. They included a greeting card with details of the victim’s place of birth, mother’s maiden name and former place of work.
She bombarded the counsellor with vile messages, including one that told Ms Cooling to ‘die b***h’ and included a hand drawn picture of a dismembered female purporting to be the victim along with her pet budgie being beheaded.
Dipnall created a Facebook group that referred to Ms Cooling’s workplace as a ‘sex ring’ and stated: ‘Has anyone heard of the nonce house. It’s where they take women in and house women who are desperate to escape domestic abuse, groom them up to prepare them to have sex with all the staff and be passed around each other.’
Other malicious messages read: ‘Katie Cooling is having sexual relations with all the residents’ and ‘Katie Cooling is a sexual predator.’
Dipnall, who had five previous convictions for 17 offences, also sent several topless pictures of herself to Ms Cooling, including on one occasion an image attached to a key ring. She signed Ms Cooling up for text message alerts from prayer groups and prank services. She also published the victim’s personal phone number online.
In a victim impact statement at an earlier hearing, Ms Cooling described how the stalking campaign left her fearing for her safety and meant she had to move to a different area and stop her private therapy work.
She said: ‘Devastation has rippled through every area of my life as a result of this cruel attack. I have been deeply shocked and traumatised with the depth that the perpetrator went to, to know personal details about me and use those details to shame, punish and degrade me. No words can truly capture the levels of emotion experienced as a victim of stalking and harassment. The impact on my mental health has been immense.’
Ms Cooling claimed that due to the online ‘slander’ she is no longer able to use her business name or full name. She has reportedly been forced to rebrand and believes her ‘future as a therapist is uncertain.’
‘The loss I have experienced has been and is incredibly painful, having spent the last 12 years building my business for it to be savagely attacked and trashed within the space of 11 weeks,’ she said.
‘I don’t know if I will ever do what I trained to do in the future. This attack has caused me to have many questions about my life.’
Ms Cooling claimed the incident has impacted her ability to sleep, as well as her mental and physical fitness. She is fearful that she will be ‘attacked whilst in the community’ and has reportedly been ‘too scared to leave my home without support’. The therapist notes she has lost a ‘certain amount of independence’.
‘My anxiety rises when I see changes to the cars parked outside my home and fear when I see people sat in their cars at night with their lights on. I fear people walking behind me in the same direction,’ she told the court.
‘I have had to therapy for my own and have tried a number of different medications to assist me to manage my emotions relating to this attack, including anger, depression, fear, stress, distress and at times suicidal ideation.’
She added: ‘Having been sent death threats and a picture of me with my body and my pet in pieces caused great alarm and I fled out of my current area to a different part of the country. Therapists are there to support recovery and wellness and should not be subjected to this type of abuse.’
Dipnall, 24, pleaded guilty to stalking at an earlier hearing. She was given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, and a restraining order barring her from any kind of contact with the victim, to run until further notice. She was also ordered to attend a mental health rehabilitation course and the court heard she has been offered a place on a two year mental health treatment programme
Dipnall was arrested at a hotel in Handforth in December 2021. Officers searched her room and found a mobile phone, laptop used to create and send the messages and notebooks written in the same handwriting that had been sent to Ms Cooling.
Kay Driver, defending, said Dipnall had a difficult upbringing, much of which was spent in care, and suffered domestic abuse which led to her being diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, anxiety, depression and PTSD.
Ms Driver added: ‘She suffered greatly as a child at the hands of her parents and her foster carers. That led to significant mental health problems.
‘This is a woman who clearly needs help, who has been let down by the system, by her parents. She needs assistance to become the useful member of society she wants to be.’
Judge Michael Blakey said the ‘derogatory and grossly offensive’ messages were designed to cause the victim ‘maximum distress’.
He added: ‘The victim felt devastated and traumatised. She felt humiliation and shame. She felt as though she were being punished for something she couldn’t have done. She had to seek medical help.’
The judge said he also ‘rejected’ Dipnall’s attempts to ‘victim blame’.
He added: ‘It has been said by you that the victim behaved in a manner that led to a significant breach of trust. I reject that and I reject the fact of your attempts to victim blame.’
But Judge Blakey acknowledged Dipnall’s troubled childhood and mental heath problems had an impact on her behaviour, adding: ‘You spent time in custody as a youth.
‘You had troublesome experiences in care, to put it mildly, and very very troublesome experiences in foster care. You have had difficulties with your mental health exacerbated by your use of drugs and alcohol.’
Dipnall pleaded guilty to stalking at an earlier hearing. She was given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, and a restraining order barring her from any kind of contact with the victim, to run until further notice.
She was also ordered to attend a mental health rehabilitation course and the court heard she has been offered a place on a two year mental health treatment programme.
