A mother has come forward to reveal her chilling ordeal that left her scared for her life at the hands of Netflix's Can I Tell You A Secret? stalker Matthew Hardy.
Kristen Dugdale's life turned into a nightmare after she was targeted by Hardy - dubbed Britain's worst cyberstalker and who has been jailed for nine years.
The 31-year-old mum was first contacted in February 2019 by an anonymous Instagram account claiming they had an important message about her then-husband.
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It began a two-year ordeal which saw Hardy accusing her of sleeping with her then-husband's father and using her images to sell adult content. He even subjected her to a barrage of anonymous phone calls and insults - calling her "disgusting" and telling her to "stick to taking your clothes off".
She became convinced it was someone she knew - and stopped trusting those close to her, and it drove a wedge between her and her now-ex. Kristen contacted police but the abuse didn't stop until Hardy's arrest - she was not involved in the court case against Hardy but police confirmed she was a victim of the prolific stalker.
Hardy, who created hundreds of fake social media accounts, is believed to have targeted 63 victims over 11 years, according to reports.
Speaking for the first time, the mum-of-one said she's still haunted by his daily messages. “I was scared for my life at one point," she said.
"I lost my confidence and my trust in people around me. Before I knew it was Hardy, this random person from a place I had never been to, I was questioning everyone around me.
“It affected my mental health, and it’s not fair – it's had a lasting impact on me, and I lost friends. I ended up getting into a lot of arguments with my ex over it. It affected our relationship."
Kristen, an ex-model, says she was first contacted by Hardy in early February 2019 - when he messaged her anonymously on Instagram to imply she had slept with her ex-husband's best friend. Things quickly escalated and Kristen began receiving regular phone calls multiple times a day and abusive messages from numbers she didn’t recognise.
She says sometimes he would call from withheld numbers and stay silent or breath into the end of the phone or send her texts saying he wouldn't leave her alone and reminding her that he knew her family, and calling her "fat". Fake profiles pretending to be her started popping up on Instagram – with Kristen saying some accounts were even seeming to sell adult content using her images.
The fake accounts reached out to photographers she had worked with in the past and old school friends. She says he contacted a photographer she had worked with and attempted to organise a photoshoot while sending suggestive messages.
She says the photographer even said Hardy had details of a conversation they'd had in-person - leaving her questioning whether her phone was bugged.
Kristen says Hardy seemed to know the names of her friends and family - mentioning her ex-husband's friends names, and even their wives and girlfriend's names. It made her believe the person hounding her online was someone she knew in person and she says Hardy became so brazen he messaged people she knew from his personal Facebook.
In one instance he contacted her and her ex-partner's dad directly to accuse them of sleeping together - to Kristen’s horror. Despite first contacting Wiltshire Police in September 2019, the campaign of abuse continued until Hardy was arrested - and all contact stopped.
Hardy was convicted in Cheshire Crown Court on January 26 this year following an investigation by PC Kevin Anderson with Cheshire Police.
Kristen's final interaction with the cyberstalker was on October 26 2020 when she told him she'd contacted the police. She says he replied asking why they hadn't charged him previously despite having evidence.
But Kristen says the experience has stuck with her and still affects her now. She said: “It was so scary at that time – I started accusing people I knew, I didn't trust anyone. He seemed to know loads of really personal stuff about me, it was just awful, he alienated me from trusting some of my ex-partner’s friends and even family.
“I found it strange in the end how he didn't even conceal his identity – it was like he wanted to get caught but thought he was invincible and nothing would happen.
“The last thing I said to him is I wouldn’t stop until he was in jail. I was very shocked by how high his sentence was – people do worse things and get less time, so I was happy with the sentence.
“This needs to be stopped in its tracks before it gets to such a serious level, [the police] waited until it got really bad.
“When I found out [it was Hardy], I told the police it was him and they didn’t believe me, it felt like I had to do their job for them, and they couldn’t do anything until something serious happened. People need to be aware, and police need to take this kind of thing a bit more seriously.”
Can I Tell You a Secret? launched on Netflix last week (February 21), and follows the story of Hardy, one of the UK's most prolific cyberstalkers. The two-part series profiles three victims subjected to relentless harassment by Hardy - who used fake social media profiles to 'spread relationship-ending lies about them'.
Police Constable Kevin Anderson from Northwich Local Policing Unit, confirmed that Kristen was a victim of Hardy's.
He added: “Having led on this case for more than 18 months I have seen the emotional distress and turmoil that Hardy has inflicted on his victims – he did all of this while hiding behind his computer screen. The impact on those affected by his actions has been immense, causing some of them to change some of their daily habits, and live in constant fear that they were being watched.
“On other occasions, it caused them to lose trust in their friends and family members, and even led to the breakdown of long-term relationships. Thankfully, Hardy has now been held accountable for his actions, and his online activity has finally been brought to a stop.
"I hope that the conclusion of this case will provide some closure for his victims and enable then to rebuild and move forward with their lives.”
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