As a political feminist, Stephanie Guthrie says she’s used to getting some negative feedback on Twitter.

But after a man allegedly continued to send bullying tweets to her for six months, she went to the police. On Wednesday, a 52-year-old Toronto man was charged with criminal harassment and breach of a peace bond.

Guthrie said she was organizing a couple of events in May in relation to her group, Women in TO Politics, and someone on Twitter offered to design the poster.

“I didn’t know anything about him, but he had done some reputable work,” Guthrie said, adding she noticed a lot of unsolicited comments to women from the Twitter account.

After declining his offer to design the poster, Guthrie said the harassing tweets started, and only became worse when she and her friends requested that the tweets stop.

After a couple of months, she said, she and some of her friends asked the man to stop contacting them.

Guthrie said she learned that “Blocking [an account on Twitter] doesn’t stop a person from tagging you in their tweets,” and the alleged harassment continued.

She said her case was helped by keeping documentation of the tweets through screen capture and an unlisted Storify account.

“Unfortunately, when it comes to harassment, the onus is on the victim to collect as much information as they can,” she said.

This isn’t the first time Guthrie has been in the spotlight regarding online harassment.

Earlier this year, she stood up for feminist blogger Anita Sarkeesian after a game called “Beat up Anita Sarkeesian” was released online. She received death threats and other violent tweets at that time.

Guthrie said she didn’t lodge a complaint with the police as a political move.

“I do activism in the area of online harassment and online sexism, but this isn’t an activist thing, this is a personal thing,” she said. “I didn’t report this to the police to prove a point.”

Stories like this are too common, Guthrie said. “Basically, this kind of thing happens on the Internet all the time, and the culture of the Internet encourages us to look the other way,” she said. “And in particular, the Internet is this way for women, and further, for outspoken women, and further, outspoken feminist women.”

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Gregory Alan Elliott is facing charges of criminal harassment and breaking a peace bond. He appeared in court Wednesday morning.

Police believe there may be other victims. Anyone with further information is asked to contact investigators or Crime Stoppers.

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