Virtual terror leaves real scars, says one of the string of women a 29-year-old man is accused of cyber-stalking under the alias Scotty Toppers.

"I've basically been a victim for three years," said the woman who reported that someone she believes hacked her e-mail impersonated her on Facebook over and over again.

There were crude sex chats with men and women and her personal photos and images of body parts plucked from porn shared with friends, acquaintances and total strangers.

"The fear - who is going to see it?" she said.

"This affects my ability to sleep, eat, live - I haven't been living a normal life for three years because I fear what will happen next.

"My fear was that it would escalate because this person showed no signs of stopping."

That fear seemed all the more real when police reported they'd found two guns and ammunition along with about a kilo of cocaine in the raid of a Briargate Pvt. home.

And Nicholas De Carlo, 29, is facing a charge of possessing "date rape drug" GHB for the purpose of trafficking -- along with criminal harassment, extortion and theft of personal photos and mischief to data involving a total of 21 women.

One woman reported threats aimed at getting her to perform sex acts so explicit content could be posted online; another attempts to threaten her into having sex with "Scotty Toppers."

De Carlo made a brief appearance in court Tuesday by video link from jail. He returns Aug. 5.

Police, meanwhile, are probing eight new complaints made since they revealed that 13 Orléans-area women -- whose connections to De Carlo include growing up in the neighbourhood and being elementary and high-school classmates -- had complained of online harassment by "Scotty Toppers."

"A lot of our photos are still online," said one.

She had a boudoir-style photo she had never posted online taken -- how she doesn't know -- then sent to her with a crude taunt and posted on social media, beginning months of what she calls sheer "hell."

She's frustrated to hear that Internet users just need to be more careful and wants tougher laws governing cyberspace.

"I don't see this as the result of my own naivete," she said. "This is someone who went out of his way to target me."

She wants to turn the tables -- exposing online predators as they expose their victims.

"I think that's justice," she said.

megan.gillis@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @ottawasun_megan