John Kirk pleads guilty in ACT Magistrates Court to stalking charge

John Owen Kirk, 30, also moved to within 1km of the fearful woman, left her unwanted gifts, and created a timer to count down to the expiry of a personal protection order.

His campaign of harassment, which lasted nearly four years, can be revealed after he faced the ACT Magistrates Court on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to stalking.

Court documents show Kirk met his victim at a mutual friend's birthday party in May 2019.

After he began renting a room from the friend in Queanbeyan a few weeks later, he spent ages pestering her to arrange a dinner so he could "reconnect" with the victim.

When that eventuated, he tried to exchange phone numbers but the victim declined.

This set off a chain of events that began with Kirk posing as a fictitious ex-boyfriend to abuse the woman on Snapchat, then coming to her defence using his own account.

Realising what was going on, the victim told him to leave her alone.

In response, Kirk sent her a video of himself holding a knife to his own throat and crying.

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After Kirk was booted out of the Queanbeyan home, the mutual friend and the victim went to his new place to drop off some things he had left behind.

Kirk reacted by begging the victim to "come back into his life" before lying down behind the car she was in so it could not leave. He had to be forcibly moved out of the way.

Court documents show he has since made "constant unwanted efforts" to connect with the victim, including by sending gifts for her to the homes of her friends.

The gifts, accompanied by love notes, have included flowers, teddy bears, chocolates, football jerseys, a framed collage of the victim and her dog, and Swarovski crystal bears.

Furthermore, he arranged for the deliveries of more than $1200 worth of flowers directly to the woman's home.

Kirk also sent unwanted gifts to the woman's workplace and left them on her car while she was at the gym, where he had an altercation on one occasion with another patron.

At another stage, he even approached her at the gym, dropped a bag of gifts at her feet and ran away.

Court documents show the victim also received a deluge of anonymous letters, many of which had postage markings that indicated they had travelled through Queensland.

Investigators would later discover Kirk had paid a Queensland resident nicknamed "tiger" to write letters to the victim. He transferred this person more than $23,500.

Some of the missives professed Kirk's love for the woman.

Others threatened her to drop a personal protection order she took out against him, stating she would lose the legal battle and go to prison where she would be raped.

In the week leading up this order lapsing, Kirk posted images on his social media accounts of a countdown to its expiry.

His social media posts are largely devoted to expressions of love for the victim, including pictures of four tattoos he has got since meeting her.

These are a replica of one of the woman's own tattoos, as well as part of her name on his right leg and her initials on each of his arms.

Another of his posts features a picture of himself and the words "I'VE BEEN STALKING AGAIN".

Kirk, who at one point moved to a place 900 metres from the victim's home, is now listed as living in the NSW town of Harden.

He was arrested on the Monaro Highway on May 9 while driving his ute, on the back of which was a sticker bearing the victim's initials.

Kirk, who is on bail, is due back in court for sentencing on June 27.

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