Vishaal Vijapura, 28, of Shirley, Croydon, was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison on Tuesday, June 14 at Croydon Crown Court. He was also given a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
He previously pleaded guilty to seven counts of stalking involving fear of violence in the same court.
The Metropolitan Police were made aware of a list Vijapura had published online containing the victims’ personal details, as well as a short essay attempting to justify raping the women, in January 2021; more victims were discovered during the intensive police investigation.
On numerous other occasions, Vijapura took images from the victims’ personal social media profiles and published them with rhetoric claiming that the victims enjoyed outrageous sexual gratification; he also published posts online with their personal information encouraging serious sexual violence against them.
The victim’s addresses are spread across 16 police districts in England.
Evidence was also gathered indicating that Vijapura identified the victims online and then paid for online services to obtain their names and full address details.
In some cases, he paid an ancestry website to obtain more detailed personal information about the victims and their families.
Vijapura was arrested on January 28, 2021, following the publication of the online list and the accompanying essay.
Vijapura was arrested again on March 19, 2021, for a new offence, and it was discovered that he had violated his police bail conditions.
Since receiving the initial allegations, detectives have overseen a complex investigation involving the forensic analysis of numerous devices in order to obtain the evidence needed to charge Vijapura in court.
Anyone with information about this case or who requires assistance should call DI Paul Smith of the South Area Public Protection Unit at 101.
