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It began with a short email from a stranger asking for help and it ended six years later with a violent fraudster and rapist being jailed for 12 years – thanks to an incredible group of women and their fight for justice.
It was 2017 and I was working as a newspaper reporter when I got the email from a woman who detailed how she had met a man named Christopher Harkins on Tinder and he had stolen £3,247 from her.
Lisa, who is using a pseudonym because she doesn’t want to be linked to this story forever, explained that Harkins had lovebombed her, suggested they go on holiday together and then, when she transferred the money, went quiet.
It quickly transpired the holiday wasn’t real and Harkins would not refund the cash.
Lisa was afraid Harkins would go on to scam someone else. It didn’t occur to Lisa – or to me – that it was a scam he had already honed with experience.
Lisa had gone to Police Scotland for help and been told the issue was a civil matter.
Frustrated, but determined, now she wanted to protect other people by exposing this man in the press.
We spoke on the phone and she laid out the situation, how he’d overwhelmed her with attention, had been the perfect gentleman. And how things had quickly changed when he decided to push her for money.
Lisa, a smart, impressive, professional woman in her 30s, provided screenshots of WhatsApp conversations and bank account details.
It was clear very quickly that this man was a master manipulator, but it wasn’t until I spoke to him on the phone that I realised how skilled he was at the practice.
Tracking him down was the hard part.
Lisa had told Harkins that she had spoken to the police, but he didn’t believe her. I listened with my heart in my mouth as she told me she went back to their room, where Harkins was still asleep, and took his wallet from his bag.
His bank card said Christopher Harkins. She took her belongings and left.
Knowing, at that time, what I knew about Harkins’ other behaviour, which wasn’t in the public domain, I had such an overwhelming feeling of relief that he hadn’t woken up.
He scammed another woman in London, and she went to the Metropolitan Police, who acted quickly.
He was convicted and jailed, which was both a relief to the women in Scotland and a frustration.
The English proceedings meant the impending trial in Scotland would be delayed. Again.
Just before Harkins was imprisoned in England he called my editor to complain that I was orchestrating a campaign against him because I was obsessed with him. That took a bit of explaining.
The delays were intensely stressful to the women involved in the case but they were determined to see it through.
Their bravery and solidarity was incredible to witness.
When the case called at the High Court in Paisley last year I attended every day of court.
Harkins was eventually arrested and jailed.
Harkins by now was a diminished figure. I’d seen him years before in the High Court in Glasgow and he had been a muscular, imposing man.
Now he was thinner, his court suit too big. He was a man obsessed by appearance and I can only think his baggy shirts and mismatched shoes and trousers caused him stress.
Harkins was found guilty of 19 offences including rape, assault, recording an intimate video without consent, threatening and abusive behaviour, and four other sexual offences.
He also admitted defrauding nine women out of more than £214,000.
In July last year Harkins was sentenced to 12 years in prison. As he was handcuffed to be led to the cells, he turned to look at me in the gallery.
“This is because of you,” he said. No. This was because of the women who were brave enough to stand up to him.
If there is anything to be taken from story of Christopher Harkins, it is the determination of these women and the way they held their nerve for years, standing together as a force Harkins that, in the end, could not reckon with.
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