The man who tormented and harassed George Hadgelias, his wife Kate and members of their family for over 15 years has been released on parole.
Tony Vincent Walters pleaded guilty in a Brisbane District Court last month to unlawful stalking after he tormented the family by posting cruel online slurs, harassing the family through phone calls, and sent letters to nearby businesses and child protection officials alleging the family were paedophiles. Mr Walters at times would call the family up to 50 times a day, with Mrs Hadgelias telling the Herald Sun the phone would ring “every five minutes between 2:00 am and 4:00 am night after night”.
The family said that prior to the stalking they had never had any dealings with Mr Walters. He began harassing the family in 1997 by sending a threatening letter demanding $50,000 and in it, he threatened to kill members of the family. From that moment on, he continuously harassed the family – even from his jail cell after he was jailed for three years in 1999. He placed the Hadgelias family on his preferred contacts list and would call them from prison.
Mr Hadgelias says that due to the internet, there is no end to this terror that Mr Walters has caused. They have no way of deleting hateful online slurs about the family from the internet.
“The law has not kept up with the growth of the internet and the rise of social media,” Mr Hadgelias told the Herald Sun.
As the principal of Ray White Paddington in Queensland, the 25-year real estate veteran says there is no way to put a value on the “extent of the damage, professional and personal” and even looking towards the future and the effect it may have on members of the family.