British ‘stalker' followed US travel influencer to Bali
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.
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