Jonathan Wilford, a 29-year-old IT expert from Wilmslow, has been sentenced for a stalking campaign targeting women he attended high school with. Wilford, who worked as a director of a graphics and gaming company, used his IT skills to bypass blocks and continue contacting victims after they tried to stop him.
Stalking campaign details
Wilford trawled social media accounts to monitor the day-to-day lives of former classmates before contacting them out of the blue to declare his love. He sent sexually explicit pictures of himself wearing a dress and stockings, and in one image exposed himself on a park bench while dressed in a skirt and stockings. He also created a graphic video of himself performing a sex act while watching a compilation video of his victims on a TV screen.
When women blocked him, Wilford used his IT expertise to find alternative accounts and continue messaging them. In 2024, he was made subject to a 10-year Stalking Protection Order (SPO) banning him from contacting eight women and prohibiting him from researching them on social media.
Breach of order and further offenses
Despite the SPO, Wilford bought new computer equipment and contacted five more former schoolmates, sending them explicit images. He also set up an anonymous Instagram account to send deepfake sexualized images to an eleventh former pupil. The deepfake images were created using AI to make the victim appear topless, and Wilford claimed they had been shared on around 200 Twitter accounts. The woman received updates about twice a month with AI pictures accompanied by 'horrible captions'.
One victim told the court: "It is not nice to have a picture of yourself with your top edited off and obviously that was quite concerning." She added that when she spoke to friends, one immediately said Wilford had been sending the same messages to her sister, saying 'he has been doing this to quite a few of us'.
Police investigation and court proceedings
Police began investigating in 2022 after victims complained that Wilford had been hounding them online since 2017, emotionally blackmailing them about his sexuality, sending graphic images, and posting 'very offensive videos'. Officers attended his home on Broad Walk in Wilmslow, seizing electronic devices and warning him not to contact the five complainants.
Wilford was arrested on May 4, 2025, after police found a computer set up with YouTube on the screen and a black iPhone. He admitted the Instagram account was his but denied wrongdoing, claiming he had been sending sexualized images to the latest victim with her consent and thought he was 'helping' her.
Sentencing
Wilford's lawyer, Derek MacDonald, told Crewe Magistrates' Court: "There is a strong recommendation in the pre-sentence report that deals with his background, his difficulties and upbringing which I do not propose to mention in open court."
Wilford was convicted of breaching a Stalking Protection Order and sentenced to an 18-month community order. He was ordered to complete 25 days of rehabilitation activity, fined £300, and ordered to pay £514 in costs and surcharge. He was also banned from contacting the latest victim for three years under a restraining order. Officials had recommended he be fitted with a GPS tracker to monitor his movements, but magistrates deemed it 'disproportionate'.
