How Britain’s worst cyberstalker Matthew Hardy evaded justice?

Matthew Hardy from Cheshire enacted a marketing campaign of stalking and harassment on-line that spanned over a decade.

His relentless on-line persecutions tore aside friendships, relationships – and even almost ruined the marriage day of one in all his victims.

Others lived in a lot worry that they slept with samurai swords and baseball bats by their beds. 

But regardless of terrorising younger ladies for over a decade, it wasn’t till January 2022 that Hardy was served with a custodial sentence of 9 years.

As Can I Tell You A Secret is about to air on Netflix, FEMAIL takes a have a look at how Britain’s worst cyberstalker who managed to dodge justice for 11 years.

When did Matthew Hardy’s stalking start?

Hardy’s cyber crimes started when he was in secondary faculty in 2006.

As Facebook was in its infancy, so too had been Hardy’s stalking and harassment tendencies.

The then-teenager had a tough time in secondary faculty in accordance with classmates, who mentioned he was usually teased and bullied.

Gina, who attended the identical faculty in Northwich, mentioned she usually felt sorry for Hardy.

She instructed The Guardian in 2022: ‘He was remoted, I used to make an effort to say hello.’

But when his friends and younger women in faculties close by rushed in droves to enroll to Facebook, Hardy started to make use of the platform to stalk them.

According to the publication, he stalked 25 women alone from one faculty in Cheshire. 

Melanie (not her actual title) who was his first sufferer, shared that the ladies in class shortly cottoned on that the nameless particular person messaging them about dishonest boyfriends was Hardy.

But all the things got here to a head when Hardy instructed Melanie that her deceased mom had been having an affair.

Telling police that she ‘could not deal with’ the harassment from Hardy anymore, authorities mentioned there was nothing they may do as a result of it was on-line.

Amy Bailey, who was additionally a pupil from Northwich, was solely 16 when Hardy started to harass her in 2011, barraging her cellphone with 90 calls a day.

She instructed The Guardian: ‘One time, he mentioned he noticed me washing a automotive, Another time, he commented on the color of my high. I went in and began crying.’

However, when she instructed Cheshire police about Hardy’s stalking she was instructed to delete her social media accounts and block his quantity.

That identical 12 months Hardy was convicted of hacking and harassing one other ex-classmate, Samantha Boniface.

Two years later in 2013, he pleaded responsible to harassing and hacking Amy Bailey and was served with a restraining order and suspended sentence.

Bailey reported Hardy to police three separate instances of breaching his restraining order – as soon as in 2014, one other in 2015 and once more in 2017.  

Hardy’s convictions didn’t appear to discourage him as he went on to undertake  one other sufferer – Gina Martin – in 2013.

She would get up to new messages from individuals  each day who had interacted with an impersonation account Hardy had created of her.

His fixed tirades started to make Martin terrified of visiting her mother and father dwelling as she was conscious he solely lived 5 minutes away.

Eventually, she too reported Hardy to the Cheshire constabulary in 2016.

In September 2016, he was arrested below warning, however in April 2017 the Crown Prosecution Service declined to go ahead with the case.

These weren’t the one ladies had tormented from the realm, Hardy’s periodic harassment of Northwich pupils finally amounted to 25 years.

But his disturbing tendencies did not finish there. 

Hardy would forged his web additional afield, stalking ladies within the surrounding space after which ladies who he had by no means even met in any respect.

How did Hardy evade justice for 11 years? 

The serial offender started focusing on ladies with massive social media followings, with whom he had no reference to in anyway.

Among these ladies focused by Hardy was Zoe Hallam, who first acquired a message which learn ‘Can I let you know a secret?’ on Snapchat from Hardy in 2018.

These messages then progressed to silent cellphone calls, which might see Hardy taunting Hallam for crying in worry on the cellphone.

Hardy even went to the lengths of impersonating her father-in-law on-line and interesting in inappropriate conversations with teenage women, tarnishing his repute as a health care provider.

Hallam felt she was chargeable for her father-in-law’s repute changing into stained – a sentiment shared by a lot of Hardy’s victims.

Eventually, issues turned so scary for Hallam, that she slept with a samurai sword subsequent to her mattress.

In April 2019, she reported him to Lincolnshire police however they claimed there was nothing they may do.

They mentioned that they may solely hint numbers for ‘excessive profile’ circumstances comparable to rape or homicide.

Abby Furness, whose relationships had been additionally ripped aside by Hardy’s on-line torment, was made to really feel like she was losing police time when spoke out.

Since he started stalking her in 2019, Hardy had despatched intimate pictures of her to her boss, he had destroyed her relationship and even impersonated her on-line.

But when she finally reported him in July 2020, in accordance with Furness, Kent police implied she was overreacting.

Admitting she felt ‘actually foolish’ after the cellphone name, Furness recalled: ‘They mentioned: “Do you really think you are in danger? Because we’re 20 minutes away from you and something might happen over here.”

Even although Hardy harassed her till September 2021, she felt there was no level in contacting authorities once more after her preliminary correspondence with Kent police.

When was Matthew Hardy caught? 

Hardy was arrested a complete of ten instances earlier than he was finally put behind bars.

Once Cheshire’s PC Kevin Anderson was assigned to the case in December 2019, his decade lengthy tirades of stalking and harassment would finally come to an finish.

Whilst trawling via Cheshire constabulary’s programs, Anderson made a disturbing discovery.

Over 100 logs had been made relating to Hardy to the constabulary from 62 separate victims.

Whilst within the strategy of contacting Hardy’s victims, he seen one was a former paralegal named Lia Marie Hambly.

Hambly had documented over 700 pages containing communications from Hardy, which was a large increase in serving to Anderson strengthen the case. 

In January 2022 Mathew Hardy was sentenced to 9 years in jail after pleading responsible to harassment and stalking involving worry of violence and harassment. 

Even although solely 9 circumstances had been taken under consideration throughout Hardy’s sentencing the definitive variety of his victims is probably going within the lots of. 

Anderson instructed the Evening Standard that there have been probably ‘too many to understand’.