VANCOUVER – A man accused of trying to emotionally ruin the life of his ex-wife using online posts has been found guilty of criminal harassment and unlawful possession of a firearm by a B.C. Supreme Court jury.
The court heard Patrick Fox‘s tactics included threatening emails, blog postings and a website about Desiree Capuano, who lives in Arizona.
Crown attorney Mark Myhre told the court Fox’s hatred for Capuano was so intense he used their teenage son as a pawn, reading to the jury a number of emails sent between 2014 and 2016 in which Fox declared that his goal was to “destroy” Capuano’s life.
Myhre outlined 10 ways in which Fox’s actions constituted criminal harassment of Capuano, saying Fox falsely maligned her as a white supremacist, a child abuser and a drug user.
Defence counsel Tony Lagemaat argued that the two were engaged in a nasty game in which they taunted each other by email, adding that Capuano didn’t seem to fear Fox because she had initiated an email chain despite telling him to stop emailing her.
The jury also heard four handguns were found inside a computer in a box Fox shipped to a California address from Burnaby, B.C.