logo
British ‘stalker' followed US travel influencer to Bali

British ‘stalker' followed US travel influencer to Bali

Yahoo07-05-2025

Alexandra Saper, an American influencer, claimed Rob Keating followed her to Bali, a court heard
A British 'stalker' followed an American travel influencer to Bali with a rope in his suitcase, a court has heard.
Rob Keating is alleged to have booked a one-way ticket to the Indonesian island after almost a year of harassing Alexandra Saper, an Instagram blogger, with emails and video messages.
'You're never getting rid of me,' he messaged Ms Saper on arrival before visiting bars and cafés near her island home, Portsmouth Crown Court was told.
Ms Saper, 33, a former lawyer who now earns a living from her Instagram page, The Wayfaress, which has more than 100,000 followers, told the jury that she was forced to flee the country in fear.
Mr Keating, a traffic worker living in his sister's garage in Havant, Hants, at the time, was arrested when he returned to the UK with 'black rope' in his suitcase, the court heard.
He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of stalking involving serious alarm or distress.
Alexandra Saper loves to travel across the world
Ms Saper shares her adventures on Instagram
Opening the case, Alexandra Bull, prosecuting, told the court: 'Mr Keating is now 39 years old, between 2022 and 2023 he was living in his sister's garage... and working in a traffic job and he, too, frequently posted on social media and YouTube.'
He started following Ms Saper on Instagram in 2022 and sent her a 'weird and creepy' message, to which she replied 'Dude, why are you following me if you don't like my content', the court heard.
Ms Saper blocked Mr Keating, but he 'then found her business email connected to her website,' the prosecutor said.
The contact is said to have become 'incessant and constant' and grew more 'intense' and 'sexual in nature' later into 2022.
In September, Mr Keating 'described having sex with her to some length' in a video of himself talking to the camera, the court heard.
'He was speaking to her as though they were in a relationship, like he was in love with her and she with him,' Ms Bull said. One email included a threat to abduct her, she added.
The Instagram travel influencer has more than 100,000 followers
Ms Saper post scenes of her visits on her Instagram page, The Wayfaress
Ms Saper said in a video interview played to the court: 'He sent me a photo of a body in a suitcase and said he was going to kidnap me.'
She added that he said he knew she was 5ft 2in, which meant she would 'fit inside the suitcase'.
Ms Bull told the court he also sent Ms Saper a picture of a one-way ticket to Bali and said 'flights booked baby girl' along with around 30 videos of himself talking to the camera.
Ms Saper saw from posts on his Instagram page that he visited a bar she regularly went to with her friends, and went to cafés just 50 metres from her house, the court heard.
In her video evidence, she said he thought she was sending him secret messages through her Instagram posts.
She said: 'His interpretation of these posts was that they were secret coded messages about my love for him, or me asking him to come to Bali because I wanted to see him.
'He was convinced that I had asked him to come to Bali.'
She said she was forced to travel to Laos, south-east Asia, so that they were no longer in the same country.
She also stopped posting on Instagram, had to cancel work projects, stopped leaving the house, and became 'depressed' because of Mr Keating's alleged actions, the court heard.
The influencer reported him to the police in Bali, and spoke to the US and the UK embassies in the country.
Following his arrest in March 2023, Mr Keating told police in an interview that he was not sexually attracted to Ms Saper, but said that 'she had shown an interest in him and there could be something there'.
He continued to stalk Ms Saper between September and November 2024, at which point he lived in Horsham in West Sussex, the court was told.
Mr Keating posted a picture of a plane ticket from London to Bali with the caption 'round 2' on his Instagram in November, it was heard. He was subsequently arrested again.
The trial continues.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Israeli forces recover bodies of two hostages in Gaza, PM says
Israeli forces recover bodies of two hostages in Gaza, PM says

Yahoo

time12 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Israeli forces recover bodies of two hostages in Gaza, PM says

Israeli security forces operating in Gaza have recovered the bodies of two Israeli hostages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says. He named one of them as Yair (Yaya) Yaakov, 59, who was killed inside his home at Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023. His teenage sons, Or and Yagil, and his partner, Meirav Tal, were abducted alive and released in November 2023, as part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. Netanyahu said the name of the other hostage had not yet been released, but that their family had been informed. There are now 53 hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive. News of the recovery of Yair Yaakov's body initially came from his sons. "Dad, I love you," Yagil wrote in a post on Instagram on Wednesday evening, according to the Haaretz newspaper. "I don't know how to respond yet. I'm sad to say this. I'm waiting for your funeral, I love you and knew this day would come." Yagil also thanked the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet internal security service and expressed hope that the remaining hostages "will be brought [back] in a deal that doesn't risk soldiers". Later, Netanyahu issued a statement saying: "Together with all the citizens of Israel, my wife and I extend our deepest condolences to the families who have lost their most beloved." "I thank the soldiers and commanders for another successful execution of the sacred mission to return our hostages." The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents many hostages' families, said in a statement that it "bows its head in sorrow over the murder of Yaya and shares in the profound grief of the Yaakov family". "There are no words to express the depth of this pain," it added. "The hostages have no time. We must bring them all home, Now!" The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. At least 55,104 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Karoline Leavitt gets fiery as she's pressed on Trump's military response to Los Angeles protests
Karoline Leavitt gets fiery as she's pressed on Trump's military response to Los Angeles protests

Yahoo

time30 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Karoline Leavitt gets fiery as she's pressed on Trump's military response to Los Angeles protests

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt got into a heated back and forth with reporters on Wednesday as she held her first briefing since President Donald Trump' federalized the National Guard in California and sent active-duty Marines to join them in cracking down on protests and unrest over immigration roundups in Los Angeles. Leavitt condemned the protests as 'shameful,' citing what she described as 'left-wing radicals waving foreign flags' who she accused of 'viciously attacking' Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents as well as Los Angeles Police Department officers as part of an assault on 'American culture and society itself.' Leavitt also condemned Democratic elected officials in the Golden State, specifically Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, accusing them of having 'shamefully failed to meet their sworn obligations to their citizens' by not ordering a forceful military response to protesters. She also lauded Trump for ordering the 'mob' of protesters to be 'stamped out.' 'The criminals responsible will be swiftly brought to justice, and the Trump administration's operations to arrest illegal aliens are continuing unabated,' Leavitt said. She added that Newsom and Bass had sided 'with illegal alien criminals in their communities and violent rioters and looters over law enforcement officers who are just doing their jobs.' But Leavitt's pugnacious attacks on California leaders did not satisfy reporters, who repeatedly asked her about the extent to which the military service members who've been deployed in Los Angeles are authorized to aid in immigration law enforcement, nor did she fully explain how Trump's threats to use 'very big force' against protesters at his planned military parade in D.C. this weekend comport with America's constitutional guarantees of free speech. She also aggressively denied that the immigration crackdown that precipitated the protests and violence over the weekend had been ordered up in an effort to change the national conversation from Trump's messy split with billionaire Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX boss who wrapped up a stint as an unpaid adviser to the administration late last month. Asked about the possibility that Trump's crackdown was meant as a distraction to their social media war, Leavitt replied: 'That's an incredibly disingenuous attack.' She said Trump had been moved by 'images of border patrol and ICE agents being hailed with rocks and Molotov cocktails' and 'vehicles being burned to the ground with illegal aliens flying foreign flags.' Leavitt's press briefing came less than a day after Trump threatened to forcibly put down any protests that spoil the military parade he has ordered up for his birthdayon Saturday to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army's founding during the American Revolutionary War. During a media availability in the Oval Office on Tuesday, the president warned that any protests of the parade would be 'met with very big force' on Saturday. He reiterated the explicit threat a moment later, telling 'those people who want to protest' that they would be 'met with very big force' once more. He also opined further that any protest against the parade on Saturday would consist only of 'people who hate our country.' The president has a long history of pushing for the use of state violence against protests, which he considers to be a personal affront and a reflection of weakness on his part. During protests for racial justice in Washington following the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer, he reportedly pushed to have military and law enforcement open fire on other protesters, asking then his then-Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, General Mark Milley, why National Guard troops deployed as a result of the demonstrations could not shoot protesters in the legs. But Leavitt denied that Trump has any intention of attacking protests against his parade or his policies this weekend. Seemingly ignorant of the president's history of urging violence against demonstrations, Leavitt claimed the president 'supports the right of Americans to peacefully protest' and 'supports the First Amendment' while suggesting that the protests in Los Angeles have consisted entirely of 'mobs of violent rioters and agitators assaulting law enforcement officers, assaulting our federal immigration authorities.' 'Thankfully, the President took action and stepped in to protect our federal law enforcement agents, to perfect protect federal buildings, to protect the federal mission of deporting illegal criminals off of our streets, and that mission will continue every day, as far as we're concerned,' she said.

American woman dies after Bushmills road traffic collision
American woman dies after Bushmills road traffic collision

Yahoo

time30 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

American woman dies after Bushmills road traffic collision

A pedestrian has died following a one vehicle road traffic collision in Bushmills, County Antrim, on Wednesday. Police received a report of the collision on the Causeway Road shortly before 12:30 BST. Allison Eichner, an American citizen from Connecticut in her 40s, was taken to hospital but died from her injuries. One person was arrested, and remains in custody, assisting with enquiries. Detectives are conducting enquiries to establish the circumstances of the collision and have asked for anyone with information to come forward.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store