Man accused of stalking Sophie Monk explains sad reason why he showed up at her door
Man in love accused of stalking Sophie Monk explains sad reason why he showed up at her door with a red rose: ‘I feel like such an idiot’
- Father-of-two denies stalking Sophie Monk
- Arrived at her home last week with a single rose
- He claims that scammers lured him into a “relationship” with Monk
A man accused of arriving on Sophie Monk’s doorstep with a single rose has revealed he thought he was in a relationship with the TV star after being ‘catfished’.
Brian Rapley, 49, reportedly traveled to Sophie’s Central Coast home on April 25 in hopes of meeting her in person after exchanging love messages online.
He claims that a scam artist posing as Ms. Monk sent him romantic texts and DMs for four months before scamming him out of $7,000.
Ms Monk’s neighbors alerted her manager when Rapley reportedly yelled at the Love Island star, who has since told police she has never been in contact with or known to the man.
Rapley was taken to Gosford Police Station before being issued a restraining order for the incident.
A 49-year-old father-of-two has denied allegations he stalked TV star Sophie Monk (pictured) after getting a restraining order last week for arriving at her house with a single rose
“I feel like such an idiot,” Rapley told the Daily telegram.
“But I thought we had a relationship.”
Rapley described the situation as “disparaging and disturbing” after he was surrounded by police officers who interrogated him “as if I were a deranged stalker.”
He showed the officers the messages he had received asking him to come to Mrs. Monk’s house.
The texts even revealed her exact address, leading the amorous admirer to believe they would meet.
Rapley initially arrived at Mrs. Monk’s property around 7:30 am.
The police immediately wondered why he was in the star’s house.
Rapley insisted that he was visiting her for the first time and that the pair had an online relationship.
He was arrested when he returned to the street later that evening.
“I had five police cars around me and I was told, ‘Get out with your hands up,'” Rapley said.
The accused, Brian Rapley (pictured), claims he was the victim of scammers who got hold of him after he commented on one of Ms Monk’s Instagram posts
Rapley claims the scammers tricked him into believing he was in a relationship with the TV star and extorted $7,000 from him for the past four months
According to Rapley, the scammers started getting ahold of him shortly after he left a comment under a post on Ms Monk’s Instagram.
Soon after, he received a message from another account with the same photo as Sophie, saying, “Hey, it’s Sophie…let’s chat here, my manager reads my official account so this is better,” Rapley said.
The scammer and Rapley only spoke to the impersonator online, claiming that “her phone was broken.”
“I thought that was weird, I was like ‘If you are who you say you are, you can walk into a store and get a new phone for free’.”
During the four months Rapley was scammed, he was approached by a company claiming to be a law firm urging him to sign a temporary marriage certificate with Ms. Monk, even though she is already married to Joshua Gross.
He was told that a great stroke of luck was coming, but she had to get married for that.
Rapley was instructed to send a photo ID and sign several documents along with money.
Although he questioned the persistent requests for payments from who he thought was Ms Monk, he said he was “lonely and I believed her.”
In a police statement, Ms Monk said she doesn’t know anyone named Brian Rapley.
“I’m not in a relationship with anyone called Brian Rapley. I am currently happily married to my husband Joshua Gross,” she said.
Mr Rapley is due to appear in court on May 16 for the AVO case.