A convicted stalker posed as a disgraced former High Court judge on Twitter while employing "increasingly covert" tactics to harass a woman he believed was in love with him.
Steven Black, who once thought legal proceedings were "romantic and secret games", was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court on Friday to a three-year intensive correction order.
The 32-year-old had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence.
He committed these offences in 2020, initially badgering a former lawyer of his with 117 unsolicited phone calls during a period of roughly two-and-a-half months.
Black, who has erotomania, a delusional disorder that makes him believe people are in love with him, rang each time from a private number.
The offender also communicated with and about the woman using social media platforms for a month in mid-2020.
He made what Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson described as "symbolical, suggestive and cryptic" Facebook posts about the victim, though he did not explicitly name her.
Black also sent the woman three Twitter follow requests using accounts that were not in his name.
One of them was in the name of former judge Dyson Heydon, who was making headlines at the time after an investigation, commissioned by the High Court, found he had sexually harassed six staffers during his time on the bench. Mr Heydon has denied wrongdoing.
Black also harassed one of his former lawyer's friends after viewing her Facebook profile and developing "a romantic interest" in her.
Across a three-week period in July 2020, he made numerous Facebook posts about her and sent her an Instagram follow request from an account that was not in his name.
Black, who had already been convicted of stalking both women in the past, was arrested at the end of that month during a police raid on his home.
He told officers he was "a special envoy" and claimed he had diplomatic immunity.
Justice Loukas-Karlsson noted that the offences occurred while Black was failing to take anti-psychotic medication as prescribed, leading the offender to experience delusions that made him believe he was in a relationship with one of the victims.
She said he had developed insight into offending since being properly medicated again, and quoted passages of a letter Black had written to the court to express remorse.
"I accept full responsibility for my actions and want to apologise from the bottom of my heart to both the victims for the harm that I have caused," part of the missive read.
Noting that Black had taken a number of steps designed to prevent himself relapsing into delusional behaviour, Justice Loukas-Karlsson spared him a full-time jail term and opted for the intensive correction order.
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She urged him not to "let anyone down" and to comply with his medication regime, saying Black had not committed crimes during periods in which he was receiving depot injections.
"You can, and must, turn your life around," the judge told Black, who wore a sizeable backpack in court throughout Friday's sentence hand-down.
"And you must be vigilant, Mr Black, for the rest of your life."
Justice Loukas-Karlsson had earlier noted that Dr Christopher Lee, of the Belconnen Mental Health Team, had recommended Black have depot injections for the rest of his life.
