A stalker who created a fake Tinder profile using photographs of his former girlfriend in an attempt to lure men to her home has been found guilty.
Asad Hussain, also known as Ash Hussain, 36, was convicted at Chester Crown Court after what police described as a disturbing and sustained campaign of harassment against the woman.
Cheshire Police said Hussain impersonated his ex-girlfriend online and gave at least 18 men her address, phone number and email address, encouraging them to go to her home.
Some of the men told the woman they believed she had matched with them on Tinder and invited them round. They said messages sent from the fake account claimed she wanted to take part in a “rape fantasy” and to be “roughed up”, and that if she said no it meant she “wanted it more”.
The court heard the victim had first met Hussain in 2024 after he contacted her on social media using the false name “Mick Renney”.
Police said he became increasingly controlling during the relationship. On one occasion, he turned up uninvited at her home after learning a male friend was visiting. On another, he went through her messages, questioned her about other men and pushed her when she tried to take her phone into the bathroom.
After the relationship ended, Hussain contacted her family and friends claiming she had been unfaithful and repeatedly tried to get back together with her.
A short time later, men began arriving at her property saying they had been invited there through Tinder.
On one evening in August, four men turned up at her address after receiving almost identical messages. In September, one man forced the front door, breaking a glass panel, after being told it was open and to give it a shove. Another later entered the house while the woman was at work and her daughter was upstairs alone.
Police said many of the men handed over their details to help the investigation, with all describing a similar pattern in which they were quickly invited to the address and then asked to describe the cars outside before being told the woman was waiting for them in the conservatory.
Officers could not find any trace of “Mick Renney” on police systems, but identified a car seen on the victim’s doorbell footage as an Audi R8 linked to Hussain’s business.
Detectives said Hussain had gone to significant lengths to conceal his identity, including changing his car registration, using dedicated phones for the fake identity and Tinder profile, and disposing of devices when he realised police were investigating.
He was arrested on 6 October 2024 after Cumbria Police spotted his van on the M6.
During police interview, Hussain denied being “Mick Renney”, denied knowing the victim and denied using fake Tinder accounts or social media. Investigators later showed that whenever the Tinder profile was active, Hussain had travelled from Cheadle to Northwich and stayed near the victim’s home for hours while operating the account.
Hussain, of Hankinson Avenue, Heald Green, Stockport, was found guilty of stalking involving serious alarm or distress, assault by beating, and failing to comply with a section 49 RIPA notice after refusing to provide passwords for devices seized by police.
Investigating officer PC Keith Terrill said Hussain had gone out of his way to cause maximum harm.
He said: “Hussain is an extremely deceitful individual whose only objective was to cause maximum harm to the victim and her children, even going as far as to incite others to break into her home and sexually assault her.”
Police said the case had left the woman and her children badly shaken and distressed.
Hussain will be sentenced at a later date.