Dear Abby: How do I get a potential stalker I met on a dating app to stop contacting me?

DEAR ABBY: When I came out of my introverted shell, I started looking for a relationship. I went on a few dating sites and met some great guys and some not-so-great guys. One of them gave me red flags from our first date. We hit it off at first and had a lot of common interests and hobbies, but he wanted to move WAY too fast.
Although our dates were always in public places, he always wanted me to be alone, either at my place or his. He seemed discouraged when I asked if another friend could come over. Then came the time when my health began to fail, and our infrequent meetings became less important to me. I told him I had health problems, but the next day he asked me out on another date as if I hadn’t told him.
Either he started ignoring what I said or I noticed it more often. For this and other reasons I stopped responding to him. Now the situation has gotten out of hand. He has contacted me on every social media app, phone and email. I am upset for many reasons but I feel guilty for ignoring him.
My family and friends say I’m doing the right thing – that responding to any of his messages will let him know I’m open to communicating again. I don’t want to talk to him again, but I still feel terrible that I’m completely ignoring him. What should I do? — WONDERING WALLFLOWER