Former police officer jailed for harassing woman online

Former Victoria Police officer Craig Lineham has been sentenced to six months' prison. (Facebook)

Former Victoria Police officer Craig Lineham harassed Tasmanian woman Sarah Baker on Facebook, posting sexually degrading remarks, warning he could find out where she lived, and inciting others to abuse her online.

The behaviour included sharing images of the front fence of Ms Baker's home, and alluding to her address.

Lineham will be subject to a 12-month community correction order involving community service and mental health treatment upon his release.

A former Victoria Police officer has been sentenced to six months in prison after repeatedly harassing a woman on social media over an almost 18-month period.

Craig Lineham, 55, was convicted of one count of using a carriage service to menace, after his victim Sarah Baker, who ran a feminist Facebook page, reported the issue to police, providing 450 pages of screenshots of the alleged harassment on her page and others.

Lineham was also initially charged with stalking her via electronic communication, but the charge was ultimately dropped when he pleaded guilty to the menace charge at Dandenong Magistrates' Court in May.

The court heard that during the period he harassed Ms Baker, 56, Lineham had posted sexually degrading remarks, warned he could find out where she lived, and incited others to abuse her online.

In sentencing Lineham, magistrate Gregory McNamara said his offending had been "extremely calculated" and deserved "just punishment" including creating a deterrent for both Lineham and others in the community.

"It was unrelenting, there was never a backwards step, it just kept going and going, I view this as an extremely serious example of this offence."

After Lineham is released he will be subject to a 12-month community correction order involving community service and mental health treatment.

In the plea hearing last month, the court heard Ms Baker was a writer who self-published, among other things, articles on politics and feminism, ran a Facebook page called "Sarah J. Baker's Teacup" and, until late 2022, another page called "Things Misogynists Say".

In early 2022, Ms Baker first went to police with allegations she was being harassed by two creators and administrators of a Facebook group called "Exposing Female Supremacists and Radical Feminists".

Ms Baker told the ABC that at first she felt it was just "really bizarre, totally random" and didn't take it particularly seriously.

"It's just so common to have men send you random messages online," she said.

Ms Baker was alarmed when he