Having a stalker is extremely emotionally and mentally draining, and earlier this year, we covered the story of the man who was forced to hide in his office toilet for six hours as his stalker of two years visited him at work. Now, another disturbing story involving a stalker has surfaced after his target, a prominent photographer, went public with her story.

Who is Acacia Diana?

According to a recent article by Tatler, Acacia Diana is a high-profile travel photographer who is also a Canon EOS Youth Ambassador. She graduated from the University of Greenwich, London and is also a Designer and Architect. She is also one of the founders of Women Travellers Malaysia, a women's community advocating to empower, inspire, and educate Malaysian female travellers. She has even photographed Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah on several occasions.

What did her stalker do?

In a series of 65 Tweets, Acacia detailed her story of being stalked and sexually harassed for eight long years. She revealed his face and name, with his online nickname being Sopert. Through a quick check by Rojak Daily on Instagram, it seems that the man has already deactivated his account. She also revealed that the mentally ill man was aware that she was revealing his identity but that he was not bothered by it as he was so obsessed with her.

  1. Online Stalking

Back in 2016, Acacia used to run a blog when she started receiving messages from Sopert asking her to collaborate on a project. After replying to him and refusing, he started to send her more messages with phrases such as “I really wanted to spend my whole life with you”. He continued to create new emails and Instagram accounts to harass her every time she blocked his new account.

Acacia said that as of today, she has blocked 36 of Supert’s Instagram accounts and 4 Twitter accounts. In Supert’s mind, he and Acacia are a couple. Acacia even temporarily tried to deactivate her social accounts but also affected her work tremendously. She has now reactivated her accounts but doesn’t post anything personal any longer.

  1. Physical stalking

He also started to approach her in person and continued to do so despite her requests to leave her alone. In 2017, he even followed her all the way to the UK and approached Acacia’s father to talk to him.

In 2019, he attempted to talk to Acacia again during her first photography exhibition at the Petronas Gallery. This started to cause her to be terrified in public, which also affected her work and public engagements.

In 2021, he sent her flowers and a few days later, a drawing of herself with the words “I NEED YOU BABY” written in red, possibly written in blood.

In January 2022, Supert went to her mum’s painting exhibition at The Linc KL. In March, he also showed up for her KL exhibition, but Acacia wasn’t even in the city as she was too terrified of being stalked by him there.

In September 2022, during the Keretapi Sarong event, he showed up and said to her, “Hello, Acacia”. She screamed expletives at him, told him to stop, and cried as her friend pulled her away.

  1. Affecting her career.

Back in 2018, Supert started to spam messages on her blog, which caused her to stop blogging, and lost a potential source of income.

  1. Police report

In 2018, after graduating and heading back to Malaysia, Acacia made a police report, but PDRM said they were unable to help as he had not threatened her physically.

  1. Family members.

For years since 2017, Acacia has been in touch with his sister and despite numerous claims that she and her family would do something to stop Supert, it seems that their actions were insufficient. She also texted Supert’s dad but he did not even respond to her.

  1. Move to the UK

Desperate to get away, Acacia even used all of her life savings to move to the UK to be free of him. Unfortunately, this did not stop the man as he had also moved there and even called a mutual friend to make sure that she knew he was in the same country as her.

He continued to stalk her in person and signed up for the same photography class that she had formerly attended. She had to wear a facemask and hoodie when she went outside in the UK as she was so scared of him finding her.

He started to send her sexual videos on Instagram of himself performing sexual acts to her photos. She said that “At one point, I scrolled for almost five hours and the messages still didn’t finish. She says that this has affected her to the point that “I cannot think about physical intimacy without feeling disgusted now”.

  1. Emotional & Mental Impact

This has caused Acacia to be affected to the point that. “In April 2023, I needed to push myself to live. I was getting too depressed and dangerously close to self-harming.”

  1. Arrest by UK Police

Acacia’s stalker attended a volunteer event that she was at in London, and she called the police. The police took him away and handcuffed him. They held him overnight as Acacia told the police the suffering she had gone through. The police released him on bail with the condition that he could not contact her or be near her as they investigated the case. They were looking to charge him for sexual harassment and stalking, with a court date set.

However, Supert breached his bail in the UK and did not show up to his court date. To this day, the police can arrest him if he lands in the UK. The UK social services victim support reached out to Acacia but she said that she needed tangible solutions rather than counselling.

  1. Updated Action by Malaysian Police

Acacia said that “For the rest of my life, I don’t think I will truly feel safe again.” Since her story has gone public, Supert has continued to be in touch with her.

A post shared by Acacia Diana (@acaciadiana)

Since then, Minister of Communications and Digital of Malaysia Ahmad Fahmi Mohamed Fadzil has also contacted her. The police have also reached out to Acacia and she made a new police report (her third so far) on 16 July. She is now awaiting action on the case.

The new Section 507A of the Penal Code for the offence of stalking came into enforcement in April this year. Upon conviction, it carries a maximum of three years imprisonment or a fine or both.

We hope that this matter will be sorted out once and for all so that Acacia can live her life in peace. Our hearts and prayers go out to her.

Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Image credit: @acaciadiana