2.5 years for stalking partner

A Kamloops man who stalked his girlfriend relentlessly over a period of months has been ordered to spend nearly three years in prison.

Christopher Ryan Franke, 34, was sentenced Tuesday to 32 months in prison after pleading guilty last week to charges of criminal harassment and breach of a no-contact condition.

Franke and the victim, whose name is protected by a court-ordered ban prohibiting the publication of any identifying information, met on a dating app in the spring of 2023 and he moved into her home within a month.

Court heard the campaign of harassment led the victim to drop out of Thompson Rivers University during the final year of her degree and caused her to close her small business.

Early in their relationship, when he was working out of town, Franke had the victim download and install a tracking app on her phone. He refused to allow her to delete it after returning home.

Franke became more controlling over time, prohibiting the victim from having male clients at work and from socializing with any men. Eventually, he refused to allow her to attend university classes because he worried she would cheat, so she dropped out.

He was tracking her whereabouts the entire time.

In jail since January

When the woman tried to kick Franke out of her house in January, he told her she owed him money. He then told her she could repay the debt in sex acts.

That’s when the victim went to police, and Franke was arrested on Jan. 19. He’s been in jail ever since.

But that did not stop the harassment. Franke violated a no-contact condition three times in the span of a month by placing phone calls from inside Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre.

Franke has three prior criminal harassment convictions, most recently in 2023, when he was sentenced to five months in prison for stalking an ex.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Joel Groves sentenced Franke on Tuesday to 32 months in prison — 30 for the harassment and two more for the breach. Once he is given credit for time served, he will have 20 months remaining on his sentence.

When he is released, Franke will spend three years on probation. He will also be prohibited for life from possessing firearms.