AN American is accused of travelling to the UK to stalk a famous Oxfordshire YouTuber and researcher.
Augustine Lopez, 47, has been charged with stalking between February 12 and March 28 of astrophysicist Dr Rebecca Smethurst – known online as Dr Becky.
The American is accused of travelling from Florida to London Heathrow in February last year with the sole purpose of seeing Dr Smethurst.
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He is also accused of sending his luggage to Dr Smethurst’s place of work and camping outside despite allegedly never having met or spoken to her.
Dr Smethurst works as a junior research fellow at the University of Oxford.
Wanting to ‘open up the world of astrophysics’ and promote it online, she made various social media accounts five years ago.
She has since amassed more than 126k followers on Instagram, 723k followers on YouTube and over 50k followers on Twitter/X after.
In 2020, the 33-year-old won the Mary Somerville Medal and Prize for the work on her YouTube channel.
It is believed Lopez was one of these followers and had an ‘obsession’ with her.
Lopez, of Orange County, Florida, is now standing trial at Oxford Crown after denying the offence.
Appearing before Oxford Crown Court on April 28, 2023, Lopez pleaded not guilty to stalking, evading an importation prohibition and possession of a prohibited weapon.
At the start of the trial on Monday (March 4), it was heard Lopez flew from Florida into London Heathrow on February 13 and had his luggage sent to Oxford University.
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The court was told he spent quite some time at the airport and had travelled to the UK without any hotel reservations.
Lopez allegedly then camped outside Dr Smethurst’s workplace and had even attempted to gain entry several times.
It is alleged Lopez had also sent Dr Smethurst numerous unwanted messages on her social media accounts as well on emails.
Concerns were raised about Lopez being outside the university and he was eventually reported to the police.
He was arrested and provided officers with a prepared statement.
He denied stalking Dr Smethurst and denied it being the sole reason he had travelled to the UK.
In all further interviews he answered ‘no comment’.
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Lopez has also been charged with evading an importation prohibition and possession of a prohibited weapon after allegedly bringing a can of ‘mace’ pepper spray, a prohibited weapon, into the UK.
He accepted bring ‘mace’ into the country and possessing it but it was ‘simply an oversight’ by him ‘given the differences in the law’.
The trial continues.
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