Former police officer who harassed woman online sentenced to six months' prison
Former Victoria Police officer Craig Lineham has been sentenced to six months' prison. (Facebook)
In short:
Former Victoria Police officer Craig Lineham harassed Tasmanian woman Sarah Baker on Facebook, posting sexually degrading remarks, warning he could find out where she lived, and inciting others to abuse her online.
The behaviour included sharing images of the front fence of Ms Baker's home, and alluding to her address.
What's next?
Lineham will be subject to a 12-month community correction order involving community service and mental health treatment upon his release.
A former Victoria Police officer has been sentenced to six months in prison after repeatedly harassing a woman on social media over an almost 18-month period.
Craig Lineham, 55, was convicted of one count of using a carriage service to menace, after his victim Sarah Baker, who ran a feminist Facebook page, reported the issue to police, providing 450 pages of screenshots of the alleged harassment on her page and others.
Lineham was also initially charged with stalking her via electronic communication, but the charge was ultimately dropped when he pleaded guilty to the menace charge at Dandenong Magistrates' Court in May.
The court heard that during the period he harassed Ms Baker, 56, Lineham had posted sexually degrading remarks, warned he could find out where she lived, and incited others to abuse her online.
In sentencing Lineham, magistrate Gregory McNamara said his offending had been "extremely calculated" and deserved "just punishment" including creating a deterrent for both Lineham and others in the community.
"You were a sergeant of police, you were a mature man, you knew the harm you were doing,"Mr McNamara said.
"It was unrelenting, there was never a backwards step, it just kept going and going, I view this as an extremely serious example of this offence."
After Lineham is released he will be subject to a 12-month community correction order involving community service and mental health treatment.
Victim found conduct 'bizarre', 'random'
In the plea hearing last month, the court heard Ms Baker was a writer who self-published, among other things, articles on politics and feminism, ran a Facebook page called "Sarah J. Baker's Teacup" and, until late 2022, another page called "Things Misogynists Say".
In early 2022, Ms Baker first went to police with allegations she was being harassed by two creators and administrators of a Facebook group called "Exposing Female Supremacists and Radical Feminists".
In March that year, Lineham began commenting on Ms Baker's page, Things Misogynists Say, including writing that Ms Baker was: "someone who has their grumpy pants on and needs a root!"
Lineham also commented to say "I will take on every one of these pages. You are a cancer on my dv elimination. I will fight you, fire you up, be rude, offensive and whatever it takes".
Ms Baker told the ABC that at first she felt it was just "really bizarre, totally random" and didn't take it particularly seriously.
"It's just so common to have men send you random messages online," she said.
The initial comment continued, "Whilst you're checking my police history, look throughout the 10 years as a covert operative and the resources, training & contacts I have to locate people … Drill deeper down and see why I was ill health retired as unstable & a risk. I have time on my hands and won't be deterred from my mission".
Ms Baker was alarmed when her harasser mentioned her daughter by name. (Supplied)
Lineham also commented on the fact Ms Baker was from Tasmania and mentioned her daughter by name, even though Ms Baker had not mentioned her daughter on her public page or private profile, the court heard.
"I think that was a shocking moment for me, I remember my stomach kind of dropping," she told the ABC.
Lineham also sent her a private message, from his account with the username Craig Lineham, saying:
"Hi Karen, may I call you Karen? So you come across as a bit of a captain grumpy pants on your page! I know it's hard having periods and stuff. Or have you run out of cucumbers and other garden variety self pleasuring instruments. I'm sure it (sic) one of them anyway, but I digress! Maybe you just need a good man rogering? Anyway hooroo, hope this helps love."
Harasser made duplicate of victim's Facebook page
At the plea hearing, prosecutor Anthony Capone said Ms Baker decided to block him, and realised he was also an administrator of the group "Exposing Female Supremacists and Radical Feminists".
The court heard that after Ms Baker had blocked him, Lineham began using multiple fake accounts to send her comments on Facebook, such as, "See you in Hobart beautiful girl. You, me and [daughter's name] will catch up … Let you know when I'm there x Lino".
For the rest of March, the court heard that he continued making sexually degrading comments referring to Ms Baker on his own Facebook group.
He also created a fake duplicated version of her page, Things Misogynists Say, posting radically feminist views and fake stories which were not in line with Ms Baker's beliefs.
He also shared them in his own group to incite members to attack Ms Baker on her actual page, the court heard.
Sarah Baker provided police with 450 pages of screenshots when she made her complaint. (Reuters: Hollie Adams)
When Ms Baker discovered the cloned page and exposed Lineham was behind it, the page disappeared, the court heard.
Receiving constant abuse, Ms Baker engaged lawyers and served a cease-and-desist letter via Facebook Messenger in May 2022, prompting the group "Exposing Female Supremacists and Radical Feminists" to shut down immediately.
But a day later, group members including Lineham started a new Facebook group called "Men's Rights Activists".
For the next five months, Lineham continued bullying and harassing Ms Baker in that group with six fake accounts, the court heard.
The harassment included insulting nicknames and photographs that were doctored to depict her as a clown, extremely aged, or with the text "large advertising space for rent" on her forehead, the court heard.
The posts attracted the attention of her ex-partner, Dean O'Shea, who then divulged "intimate and personal details" of their previous relationship to Lineham, the court heard.
Lineham then begins posting comments that Ms Baker "dropped her towel and her ex-partner nearly vomited" in several posts.
In late 2022, Ms Baker deleted her page Things Misogynists Say but maintained her other public page — Sarah J Baker's Teacup.
Then, in January 2023, an unknown member of the group revealed they knew of Ms Baker and that she lived in Tasmania's north.
Details of victim's address revealed on social media
Ms Baker told the ABC when she saw that comment her "stomach did a flip," because until then members believed she lived in Hobart.
Lineham, under his account "Craig Lino", then posted screenshots of a doctored image showing numerous missed calls from Ms Baker to her ex-partner, alongside a comment describing her as a stalker.
About nine months after the online abuse began, Lineham used his personal account and a fake account to launch a campaign against her on the Men's Rights Activists group to take legal action against her with the hashtag "#stopthisbully", with several anonymous users participating in the campaign between March and April 2023.
In June 2023, Lineham then used another fake account called Ramesh Singh and shared private texts between Ms Baker and her previous partner.
Lineham continued using that fake profile and his own profile to have a one-way conversation in the group to incite others, with anonymous posts in the group saying Ms Baker was "next" and that "they were coming for her," the court heard.
On her Sarah J. Baker's Teacup page, Ms Baker would often post images of herself with a cup of tea, which Lineham would then mock, using a fake account to post photographs of himself holding a mug or feet up with views from his property with comments directed at her and so-called "feminist trolls," the court heard.
Ms Baker told the ABC that to this day she had stopped posting photos of herself that showed her full face.
In August 2023, the group which had been renamed to "Men Matter" accepted a new account, and Ms Baker realised its username was her residential street and its profile picture was an image of her front fence.
Later, Ms Baker received a private message from Lineham's wife claiming he had attempted suicide, and was "back in a psych ward where I will have no doubt he'll spend a prolonged period of time", according to court documents.
As part of an agreement between Ms Baker and Lineham's solicitors, Lineham posted an apology to Ms Baker's Facebook page and to his own group in late 2023.
Ms Baker later withdrew the civil action because of the police investigation.
Victoria Police went to Lineham's home and executed a search warrant on June 26 last year.
A day later Lineham went to a police station for an interview, but told officers he was the victim.
Lineham did not deny his involvement but claimed Ms Baker had cloned and made up all of the Facebook profiles.
When police challenged him with evidence his mobile number was linked to some of the accounts, he said she was the one harassing him, the court heard.
Former police officer was at 'lowest point' in life, court told
In defending his client at the plea hearing, lawyer Joseph Stephenson said Lineham had no prior history, had retired from the police in late 2020 due to poor mental health stemming from his career, and until that point had been married for about 30 years.
"What he instructs me is that that was the lowest point in his life, he had to give up his career due to his mental health, his marriage had broken down," he said.
"He has then come across social media, come across this particular Facebook group and started to engage in that group … it snowballed from there.
"This group and to some degree the conflict, gave him a sense of something to do … he's engaged in this group, it's given him something to spend his time on."
The court heard Lineham began making changes in his life in mid-2023. (Facebook)
Mr Stephenson argued that later, in mid-2023, Lineham realised that something needed to change in his life.
He said Lineham was unemployed on a disability pension, had lost contact with some of his children, so then engaged "more fulsomely" with counselling he could access as a result of his policing career.
His lawyer argued that given Lineham was now about halfway through a veterinary nursing course to upskill and gain employment, and that the offending had not occurred since mid-2023, the magistrate should consider a financial penalty without a conviction recorded.
"There's not the slightest chance of me not imposing a conviction," Magistrate Gregory McNamara responded.
"She is a vulnerable person, what was done was absolutely outrageous."
The magistrate then said he was considering a term of imprisonment and questioned why the prosecution was not pushing for that, given the charge carried a maximum penalty of five years.
Ms Baker said she was "floored" when the prison sentence was imposed on Thursday.
"It wasn't what I expected because the police had prepared me for much less than that," Ms Baker told the ABC after the sentencing hearing.
"It was important what the magistrate said about creating deterrents for others in the community.
"Now this is sending the message to other would-be online harassers that the courts are taking this seriously."