She called him out for making inappropriate sexual comments online to someone she knew, who was 15 at the time. He ended up getting banned. This caused this man to develop a spiteful obsession with her because according to him, she is slandering him as a pedo.
A few months ago he found her social media and his obsession is now in full force. He’s boasted about mass reporting her, making false accusations against her, and replying to irrelevant Tweets with accusations in an attempt to stir up drama. She didn’t even mention him or talk about him, he just replied to random Tweets with confrontations and when she refused to engage, he replied again using his sockpuppet accounts agreeing with his own reply. He’s also said that he’s downloaded her photos to his computer (including ones that are a year or two old) and uploaded them to a porn site. She doesn’t wear makeup so it’s immediately obvious just by looking at her photos she’s under 18. When people confront him he uses DARVO tactics. On some sites he’s on he pretends to be civil but on his own site his motivations are much more clear. Several individuals in his friends group have allegedly either owned or defended CP.
The lengths he’ll go to in order to find every social media she has is insane and based on his post timings he’s often staying awake all night to do this.
And yes, she has reported him, but sometimes the moderation is useless and he’s very good at using DARVO to try and make it seem she’s the one harassing him. He’s also using sockpuppet accounts to make it seem like multiple people are making the same accusations when really it’s all just him.
She needs to contact the police, like others have said, and she needs to get a restraining order. The police can, depending on the local laws, build a harassment and possibly a stalking case. The restraining order isn’t going to get him in ‘trouble,’ but it will let the criminal case have more evidence and weight, and gives your relative a place to start putting emphasis behind her reports.
Unfortunately, she’ll also have to give up social media. It’s a route to her, and it’s not one that will be closed down. Creeps like that dude will come back again and again, because it’s relatively easy to avoid real bans, if he even gets one. She needs to not respond to anything from him after sending one message, “I do not wish to speak with you. Do not contact me again.” Whichever route he’s going through at the time, use that one, making sure it’s one that you can keep a record of. Then, anytime any contact is attempted again, note the time, date, a brief summary of whatever was said (from him, neither she nor anyone else should respond to anything) and contact the police again. Even if the cops are lazy and often useless in online harassment, they want you off their backs, and especially the higher ups don’t want a disgruntled citizen with an actual ignored crime complaining about them, because the winds of public opinion can turn on things like that. The records of contact are what gives the cops a kick in the ass. It’s evidence that they don’t have to do anything to get, and it’s also what a judge likes to see when it comes to a harassment case. It’s also critical that she (and anyone else) never responds. Tit-for-tat may not make his acts ‘legal,’ but it makes it easy for a defense attorney to poke holes in the prosecution’s case that he was harassing her. DARVO doesn’t work if the only communication is from him. If she’s responding to him, it sets up a scenario where there is a ‘conversation’ going, and if she isn’t ending it that doesn’t sell a harassment case to a jury very well.
Keep records of what he posted, where posted it, and when his site you mentioned is updated as well. If the harassment is mostly taking place online,