A 19-year-old student has been awarded £10,000 in damages after another teenage girl stole her online identity and conducted a nearly four-year campaign of catfishing, targeting men on various social media platforms. The victim, Sasha Davies, was first impersonated in 2019 when she was 16 years old by Elha-Mai Weston, a fellow resident of the same Welsh town who was previously unknown to her.

According to court proceedings at the High Court in London, Weston created multiple fake profiles using images taken from Davies’s social media accounts, supplemented with AI-generated content. Weston then contacted men on platforms such as Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, and Tinder, building a following of approximately 100,000 individuals who believed the profiles belonged to Davies. Some men were under the impression they had romantic relationships with the fabricated persona and even attempted to approach Davies in person.

Davies reported the impersonation and harassment to the police but said the campaign persisted for years, spanning seven different platforms. It was only after Davies appeared on the television programme This Morning that many of the fraudulent accounts were removed. Legal action was ultimately initiated by Davies’s lawyers, who commissioned an open-source intelligence investigation to identify Weston behind the online deception. Weston subsequently admitted responsibility through her legal representatives and issued a formal apology in court, acknowledging the harm caused.

In a statement following the hearing, Davies described how the prolonged impersonation made her feel unsafe. “For four years someone else was living a life as me, talking to men as me, while strangers approached me in the street believing they knew me,” she said. Davies added that earlier police responses left her feeling that “nothing could be done,” which led her to avoid leaving her home. She expressed relief after the court hearing and encouraged others facing similar abuse not to lose hope, emphasizing that perpetrators can be found.

Barrister Chris Zabilowicz, representing Davies, characterised the case as a “sustained campaign of online impersonation” in which Weston operated numerous fictitious accounts under the names “Sophie” and “Sophie Kadare.” He noted that members of the public who interacted with these profiles believed they had genuine connections with the impersonated person.

Yair Cohen, part of Davies’s legal team, highlighted the broader issue of catfishing as a frequently misunderstood form of online abuse. “People imagine a distant stranger, but in case after case we have handled, including this one, the person behind the accounts was somebody within the victim’s own world,” he said.

Weston agreed to settle the claim as part of the court proceedings, accepting that her actions were wrongful and caused significant distress and suffering to Davies. The court’s ruling and the accompanying damages mark a notable legal recognition of the harm caused by prolonged online identity theft and impersonation.