Victim Rio Ferdinand (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
A woman faces jail time after she was found to have breached a restraining order at court last week.
Susan Okoya, 44, from Bournemouth, was jailed for 10 weeks and given a 10-year restraining order in May of 2011 after Rio Ferdinand, 39, expressed fear for his and his family’s safety.
Okoya disobeyed this order on May 4th of this year. After signing up with Ferdinand’s personal trainer under a false name, she texted the trainer saying: “I think you are going to have to ask Rio to pay for the sessions”. She followed with: “LOL he will pay it because he wants me looking good for him.”
Mel Deane, Ferdinand’s trainer, said he thought she was trying to be funny and he just didn’t get it. He later contacted Ferdinand’s media manager Jake Mallo, but neither he nor Ferdinand recognised Okoya’s pseudonym.
Okoya was eventually arrested on June 13th by PC Sarah Stanley. Okoya failed to appear at Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court on November 23rd, but the trail continued despite her absence.
PC Stanley told the court that whilst being arrested Okoya claimed to be meeting Ferdinand the next day, saying: “he’s going to find this hilarious”.
Beyond the previous harassment, Ferdinand said he had no relation to Okoya except that they were both brought up in Peckham.
Despite the defence arguing that it was simply a joke and no indirect contact was attempted, District Judge Karen Hammond ruled that Okoya was in breach of the restraining order.
She quoted Ferdinand’s own statement on the matter “’I do not want anything to do with this female and I want her away from my life so I can focus on my career and my family life so I do not have to look day-to-day over my shoulder to see if she is there’”, continuing that “It’s quite obvious from this statement and I have no doubt Rio Ferdinand did not find this funny”.
District Judge Hammond found that asking Deane to contact Ferdinand about her was an attempt at indirect contact, and said she was satisfied that there was no excuse.
Okoya was found guilty and will be sentenced at a later date.
