The cops had to be called in after a known obsessed fan was sending disturbing messages to Kate Ritchie – not far from her home – bombshell police documents reveal.
Gerard Ryan, a 71-year-old Perth man, was arrested in an eastern suburbs park in Sydney late last month after he sent the Nova radio personality, 45, a disturbing message saying he was in her neighbourhood and hoped to find her.
Kate is said to have called the police and laid bare an eerie campaign of harassment that dates back years, after Ryan began to comment on Kate’s social media. “I just want to kiss you my heart is pounding for you I love you madly,” Ryan commented on one of her posts.
When Kate didn’t respond to his obsessive messages they only intensified, both in volume and subject matter.
BIZARRE BEHAVIOUR
Between February 6, 2022 and April 25, 2023, “the accused has sent hundreds of messages to the complainant [Kate]”, the police tendered in court.
In the messages, Ryan is said to have sent “several sexually explicit messages” and “numerous naked photographs.”
After Kate blocked him in April last year, Ryan sent a letter to her work address, which included a Valentine’s Day card with his name and residential address on the back.
Just last month, Ryan sent a gift card worth $200 to her office with a note saying it was to replace her lawnmower, after she spoke on air about her old one breaking down.
Also in the package were four photos, one of which included a picture of a church on Rottnest Island with the words, “The church we could get married one day.”
Ryan pleaded guilty to the chilling charge and has been sentenced to a 12-month conditional release order with an apprehended violence order also in place.
