A spurned woman lied she was pregnant with her ex’s baby, accused him of bullying her into having an abortion and pretended she had given birth in a ‘campaign of harassment’ after they split.

Stephanie Mahoney, 32, subjected her former partner and his mother to a torrent of online abuse but has now been spared a prison sentence after going on trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

She ‘made his life hell’ by bombarding her ex and his mother with a string of vile messages on Facebook and Instagram, ‘lying about being pregnant’ and posting pictures of aborted foetuses online.

She alleged he had ‘bullied’ her into having a termination though also posted a picture of a newborn baby and suggested her ex was the father, the court heard.

Mahony, from Wavertree in Liverpool, has been given 18 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, after pleading guilty to stalking and breaching a stalking protection order.  

Stephanie Mahony, from Wavertree in Liverpool, bombarded her ex and his mother with online abuse in a ‘campaign of harassment’ after their break-up, Liverpool Crown Court heard

Mahony, pictured outside court, has been given an 18-month suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to stalking and breaching a stalking protection order

The 32-year-old mother of a ten-year-old son made her victim’s life ‘hell’, he told the court – while his mother counted 25 fake social media accounts created by Mahoney

Mahoney, from Wavertree in Liverpool, had been in a relationship with her victim between July 2020 and July 2021.

Simon Leong, prosecuting, described how Mahoney ‘claimed she was pregnant with his child’ but ‘that did not salvage the relationship’.

After their break-up, Mahoney ‘began a campaign of harassment and stalking’ against both him and his mother.

That included posting his home address, where he lived with his 84-year-old grandmother, to Facebook and Instagram – alongside ‘false allegations’ he had ‘forced her to get an abortion’.

Mahoney was said to have created dozens of fake accounts on the two social media platforms and sent a string of distressing messages to her ex, his relatives and friends.

She eventually ‘turned her attention’ to his mother as he ‘did not have much social media presence’ and posted ‘a number of disturbing and unpleasant photographs, including of aborted foetuses’, Mr Long told the court.

One was accompanied with the caption suggesting it was what her victim’s mother ‘wants her grandchild to look like, in pieces’.

In another post, Mahoney added: ‘Why do you want your grandchild to be ripped apart?’

She also wrote a post in September 2021, accompanied by the complainant’s address, saying: ‘Let’s get the truth out once and for all.’

She also branded him a ‘bully’ who had been ‘s***ging all kinds of dirty s**gs’.

In another, in February 2022, she stated: ‘This is the boy who gets girls pregnant and then bullies them into abortions.’

Mahoney again posted the man’s address and urged others to ‘get down there’, while she also wrote: ‘It’s all going off tonight.’

Meanwhile, she posted pictures of a newborn child online and said her ex’s mother ‘wanted this child killed’, adding: ‘He is an innocent newborn baby boy.’

Mr Leong told the court: ‘It was always refuted by [the victim] that there was ever such a baby and that any such child was born.’

Mahoney’s behaviour was reported to the police and the fake accounts were linked to her IP address.

She denied being responsible, when interviewed, and claimed that her ex was ‘behind all the fake profiles and this was his attempt to get at her’.

The courts imposed a stalking protection order on her in December 2022.

This banned her from contacting her victims and having more than one profile on any given social media platform – but she still ‘retained multiple accounts’, including one which branded her ex-partner’s mother a ‘grandchild killer’.

In a statement which was read out to the court on behalf of Mahoney’s former partner, he stated that she had posted pictures of him and his family members on a ‘paedophile page’ and that her actions had led to him being admitted to hospital due to stress.

He alleged she also sent him ‘fake baby scans’, ‘falsely claimed she was a nurse’ and subjected him to the months of abuse ‘because she couldn’t have what she wanted’.

His statement added: ‘No one should have to suffer like this. She lied about being pregnant on more than five occasions.

‘I was walking on eggshells constantly – she’s made my life hell and that’s what she wanted to do. 

‘This has destroyed my family. I have never had to deal with anything like this before.

‘My mum was no more than a stranger to her – she has never done anything to her.

‘Never did I think I would have to drag my family through court because of a girl I got involved with stupidly.’

‘To be accused of these horrific things is unbearable – I have been unable to sleep and am constantly worried about my elderly mum. I’m a shadow of myself.’

His mother meanwhile said in her own statement she had ‘counted around 25 fake accounts’ targeting the two of them. 

Kate Morley, mitigating, said Mahony had been feeling ‘so emotionally traumatised, hurt and at an all-time low with feelings of abandonment that she emotionally lashed out and regrettably caused deep hurt and distress’.

Ms Morley added: ‘She must have wanted to lessen her pain by transferring it to others.

‘Following the break-up, Ms Mahoney’s life completely unravelled. She withdrew from friends and family and entered a deep depression.

‘She has been honest and frank in saying that she couldn’t stop. She has demonstrated deep remorse and regret.

‘She recognises how harmful her actions were. She is embarrassed and ashamed of her actions.

‘She wishes to apologise. She wants them to hear that she is sorry for the distress she has caused.’

Ms Morley told the court that Mahoney, single mother to a 10-year-old son, was ‘determined to re-enter work’ and had not repeated the behaviour during the past year. 

As well as the suspended prison sentence, Mahoney was given a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 25 days, told to complete 160 hours of unpaid work, and made to pay £500 each to her former partner and his mum, as well as £400 in court costs.

She continues to be subject to an indefinite stalking protection order.

District Judge Gwyn Jones told her in court: ‘You have heard the impact it has had not only on the male you were in a relationship with, but the extended family.

‘There was a significant risk that others may have taken the law into their hands and act – it is extremely fortunate for you that people did not act on the comments you made.’