01x02 - Part 2

[bunniefuu]

[line calling]

[tense music playing]

[line calling]

[line is answered]

[Matthew] Hello?

[Sabrina] Matthew.

[Matthew] Yeah?

[Sabrina] Why?

What made you do it?

[Matthew] Fear.

[Sabrina] Revenge?

[Matthew] A lot of people pissed me off.

[brooding music playing]

[Matthew, distorted]

A lot of people pissed me off.

[loud static]

[suspenseful music playing]

[car door opens]

[door closes]

[Kevin] So much confusion,

prolonged, relentless

Web searches, SMS messages,

photographs

iMessages.

There were absolutely thousands.

Too many to comprehend.

Chaos.

In nine, ten years,

officers have one big case

in their career.

This is like mine.

There was victims all over.

Hundreds of victims

that we don't know about.

This had to be stopped.

[electricity crackling]

[music peaks, fades]

[slow music playing]

[Zoe] He was a shadow.

But I found out who he was.

A guy called Matthew Hardy.

[phone chimes]

[Zoe] It wasn't long

before I got another message.

[stalker] Zoe. You awake?

[in singsong] Zoe?

[Zoe] So I called him out.

[tapping keyboard keys]

[unsettling music playing]

[tapping]

[stalker] You know who I am.

[unsettling music continues]

[tapping]

[Zoe] Why are you doing this?

Why me?

What are you trying to get out of it?

[stalker] Guess who I'm texting now.

Mm?

[Zoe] He'd never give me an answer.

He didn't really care.

I was like, "What is he gonna do next?"

[unsettling music continues]

My friend and I logged on

to do an Instagram Live.

People can join and comment.

It's happy, like a really good vibe.

Morris, this odd account,

kept saying weird things.

Who is Morris?

Oh my God, I got that gut feeling, I

All of a sudden,

a name came up.

This Morris had typed "Matthew Hardy."

I don't know anyone called Matthew Hardy.

Oh my God, like

And when I typed in

Matthew Hardy into Facebook,

this profile came up.

This guy seems a regular person.

Is this the Stalker man?

I think it is, but is it?

[Zoe] He lived over 100 miles away

in a town in Cheshire called Northwich.

Who is Matthew Hardy?

I'd never even heard of Northwich.

[unsettling music continues]

- [man 1] Do it!

- [man 2] Go on!

[glass shatters]

- [birds cawing]

- [line calling]

[line calling]

Hello?

[Kevin] Locals had smashed the windows

of a house in town.

They were targeting

someone called Matthew Hardy.

His mother had phoned the police.

It was, uh, to do with social media use.

When I started researching his name,

there was

loads of occurrences there,

stretching all the way back to 2010.

I found that very strange.

I started delving a bit deeper.

It was quite clear

the bulk of these were within my area.

[Sabrina] One day

I went round to my friend's house,

and she introduced me

to her husband's nephew.

Just a normal person, you know.

[phone dings]

[Sabrina] But a little while later,

all these messages started coming through,

fake accounts, impersonating people,

spreading rumors.

[phone dings]

[stalker] You won't go mad

if I tell you something?

- [phone dings]

- [Sabrina] Was asking what I did

[stalker] Are you doing a show? Where at?

where I worked.

- [stalker] Who with?

- [Sabrina] Wouldn't leave me alone.

[stalker] He's been quite close to you

in the past.

And it really upset me.

[Kevin] They all followed

much the same MO.

"Hiya, babe,

I've got a secret to tell you."

Quite innocent.

They all generated into

like a psychological warfare

against the victim.

[Amy] These messages

will not leave me alone.

He wasn't just harassing me.

He was messaging

friends and family, my boss.

[stalker] He said a lot of sh*t about you.

[Nini] He used to make up rumors

about people,

about their families, about their parents,

that would cause them to argue

[turns page]

He was trying to say that we were

some sort of, like, sexual attraction.

saying that my mum had sexual

relations with my boyfriend.

his obsession with me, I was frightened.

Scared I was shaking

because I was so scared.

- [exhales]

- [tense music playing]

[Kevin] There was a lot of victims.

He was putting them in fear.

I rang the police,

but nothing ever happened.

I reported it numerous times.

I can't say once I was taken seriously

on the matter at all.

No one was helping me.

[sighs]

[Kevin] Lots of investigations

[sighs]

but nothing has come of them.

I couldn't understand

why this guy still was operating.

[unsettling music playing]

We needed to try

and give reassurance to the victims.

We're taking them seriously.

We made our way out to his flat.

Plus, also, to try and confirm

what they'd been saying

by seizing digital devices that he has.

[knocking]

[Kevin] We could tell he was inside

because we could hear movement.

[footsteps approaching]

[unsettling music continues]

[Kevin] We took him into the kitchen.

There wasn't a lot of decor.

Very sparse.

It was clean and tidy

for someone who we believe

is leading a chaotic lifestyle online.

There was nothing to suggest

he was linking people up

and keeping a track

of who he was looking at.

There was no Post-it notes.

No notebooks.

There was nothing on the walls.

Very, very strange.

There was a tablet,

a Alcatel mobile phone.

He had a broadband router.

There was a SIM card holder.

We decided that we would do

a number of interviews.

[suspenseful music playing]

- [beep]

- [static]

[Kevin] This interview is being conducted

in interview room 3.

- Can you just state your full name?

- It's Matthew Hardy.

- [solicitor] I've prepared a statement.

- [Kevin] Okay.

His solicitor did give a prepared

statement at the start of the interview.

[camera shutter clicks]

I, Matthew Hardy,

wish my solicitors to read out

my prepared statement on my behalf.

I am here today

regarding a number of allegations.

I deny all of these allegations.

I do not recognize

any of the names of the victims.

I do not use social media or my phone

for texting very often

and only use them

to contact family and friends.

Signed and dated today by Matthew.

[Kevin] You don't know

how it's going to play out.

I was hoping that

we could get him to admit what he did.

[Kevin] This is your chance

to tell us your side of the story now.

[Matthew] Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

[Kevin] Do you recognize

any of those messages?

[Matthew] No comment.

- [Kevin] Have you created any of

- [Matthew] No comment.

[Kevin] "I know Lucy has sent you pics X.

You f*cked Lucy too XX."

[Matthew] No comment.

[Kevin] You remember

sending messages like that?

[Matthew] No comment.

I'm going through my head.

What have I got to do to chip away at you?

What is it that allows me

to break you down a little?

[Kevin] Was it you saying

you were "Hughsy Williamson"?

- [Matthew] No comment.

- [Kevin] "Joshuahhh536."

[Matthew] No comment.

- [Kevin] "EastofNovember150."

- [Matthew] No comment.

- [Kevin] "Tai Weir XXX."

- [Matthew] No comment.

[Kevin] "AliciaCraig."

You ever heard of that?

[Matthew] No comment.

[Kevin] She was asked by the profile,

"Did you bang my man back then?"

- "Yes or no?"

- [Matthew] No comment.

[Kevin] She gets an Instagram message

from her friend

telling her to stop

private messaging her partner.

[Matthew] No comment.

[Kevin] Another fake Tinder profile

offering escort services.

[Matthew] No comment.

[Kevin] She's contacted

by a male she doesn't know

asking why she had not performed

a sexual service

that he had paid 45 pounds for her to do.

[Matthew] No comment.

- [Kevin] Humiliated.

- [Matthew] No comment.

- [Kevin] It's had a profound impact.

- [Matthew] No comment.

[Kevin] Pictures of her and her daughter.

- [Matthew] No comment.

- [Kevin] Caused her to stop going out

as she thought that this person

was following her every move.

- Do you understand?

- [Matthew] Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

I understand a lot about

what that person would feel like.

I get where they're coming from,

how scared they might feel.

I've kind of had it done to myself, so

My mum's property got badly damaged

by a g*ng of th*gs.

Pretty bad.

[Kevin] He was basically just saying,

why was he there? It wasn't him.

You know, he seemed to be vulnerable.

[Matthew] People have been horrible to me

'cause of stuff

what's gone on down the years.

It's all about that news article.

- [Kevin] Sorry, what's that?

- It was on the Guardian from years ago.

How many years now?

Because of that news article.

That's why my name's mentioned.

It's been a nuisance since it happened.

It was all plastered all over the paper,

wasn't it?

[Kevin] Okay. I'm sorry.

I can see I've made you upset.

Do you mind me asking why?

[Matthew] I'm branded this name,

"Stalker."

- That's what upsets me, 'cause I'm not.

- [Kevin] Okay.

[Matthew] I'm just quiet.

Just, like, if you knew me

You give them the chance

to tell you what it is they know.

It seemed to be a story in the past

[Matthew] See, 'cause I've been stuck

in such a rut for so long

[Kevin]that there was a school

sort of involved.

[Matthew] People have had it in

for me for so long.

[wind blowing]

[tape rewinding]

[brooding music playing]

[indistinct chatter]

[David] Back then, at high school,

me and Matthew were definitely similar.

[brooding music continues]

[David] It would be easy to class Matthew

as the stereotypical quiet techy guy

in the corner who kept to himself,

so on and so forth, but

there's more to what he was than just

the kid that no one paid attention to.

There was more to him than that.

He could have been very different

if he'd had the chance to learn

how to be social,

how to interact with people.

[Joey] Matthew didn't really fit

into class.

He spoke when he had to speak.

His nerves and his shyness,

that kept him in his shell.

[Nini] Because he was socially withdrawn,

like, he was there but he weren't there.

[David] I had precious few friends

back then,

but Matthew I would have counted

as a friend.

It was true for Matthew,

and I dare say it was true for me,

that if you were different,

you were unpopular,

and once you were unpopular,

there was no way back out of it.

Back during those days, there was

no talk of being on the spectrum.

It's something he didn't even know

about himself back then.

Matthew didn't get his autism diagnosis

until long after we both left school.

[Dr. Pearson] Many autistic people

go through their life

without being diagnosed.

So he had

a really bad experience growing up,

which led to a lot of social exclusion.

A lot of autistic people

grow up without a diagnosis.

They don't want to be perceived

as different or weird.

People report feeling

like they don't know who they are

as they're growing up

because they spend so long

suppressing themselves to other people,

and trying to fit in,

that they really don't have

a sense of self.

There were large stands of trees planted

all the way around the perimeter.

For the most part, the forests were

where you went to vanish into

if you were cast out into the outskirts.

[Dr. Pearson] Growing up knowing

that you're different to everyone else

and not being able to pinpoint why,

that can be really hard

for an autistic person to deal with.

[David] Matthew would frequently

spend his time in the cover of trees.

He wanted to be a part of the group,

but he didn't know how to do it.

[unsettling music playing]

[indistinct animal sounds]

[Nini] Social media was becoming

really big at the time.

Myself and other girls in my school

started receiving odd messages

on Facebook.

We all realized fairly quickly

that it was Matthew Hardy from school.

He was messaging

a lot of girls from my year.

I would say, the majority.

[Joshua] Girls from my school would then,

"He did this to me.

He messaged my dad, my mum."

And you're thinking, "What?" [scoffs]

I can't say I did find it very threatening

because I did know Matthew

and, obviously,

I knew what he was like in school.

However, the effect

that it has on your life,

the people he would approach, for example,

your boss, people in your work,

that's quite threatening.

It did get you more worried,

a lot more anxious.

In case he does something

more sinister than watching us online.

It had been going on for me

for a year and a half.

I was working at a garage in Northwich.

I was getting 60 phone calls a day,

and it felt threatening.

My anxiety just got so much worse.

Other than work,

I didn't leave the house anymore.

[phone dings]

[Amy] I got a text message.

It said

[stalker] Nice blue top.

It's a nice job you're doing,

cleaning that car.

[scary music playing]

- [bicycle bell rings]

- [Amy] I'm obviously being watched.

This isn't just someone

messing about anymore. I just felt sick

- [door slams]

- unsafe.

I didn't know what they were capable of,

so I contacted the police.

[scary music continues]

[Stuart] Amy came into the office

at Middlewich,

showing me these messages.

"Somebody I don't know,

I don't know where they are,

but they are watching me,

and here's the proof."

[keyboard clacking]

[Stuart] Put the phone number

into the system, and there it was.

Matthew Hardy.

And he's given a restraining order,

that he's not to contact Amy.

So, if he makes any contact with her,

it results in a term in, uh, in prison.

And as far as I knew,

that was the last that anyone

was gonna hear of Matthew Hardy.

[Amy] He didn't care about

the restraining order, that he had it.

And he just carried on.

One night, me and my boyfriend

decided we would get a takeaway.

He said he'd grab it for us,

and he'd be right back.

- [doors lock]

- [Amy] I locked the doors straightaway,

and I noticed that there was

a man across the road

and he was just stood there,

on his own, just staring.

So the man came towards the van.

[man] Why are you doing this to me?!

Why are you doing this?!

[Amy] For him to be screaming

- [man] Why you doing

- I just took it as he was angry

that I was still trying to report him.

It made me believe it was Matthew Hardy.

- Why?!

- I wasn't sure.

- [distorted] Why're you doing this to me?

- Felt like I was going insane.

- You there!

- [Amy] Was it him?

Why are you doing this?! [distorted] Why?

I don't know.

Why?! Why did you do this?!

Why have you done this?! Why?!

[music fades]

[Matthew] If anything goes wrong,

obviously, I'm going to be to blame

because of the past.

People just think the worst of me

because I've got previous and such.

They probably read my story before, so

- [Kevin] But it's a fact though, isn't it?

- [Matthew] Oh, that was, previously, yeah.

He said to me

he'd been brought to book in 2013,

but since then, nothing,

effectively saying, he's stopped now.

Why would these people decide it was you?

- [Matthew] It could be a set-up.

- [Kevin] Okay.

[Matthew] He's somebody I know,

who's got something against me.

I probably have fake accounts

set up as me as well.

[Kevin] That profile has been accessing

the internet using your router.

[Matthew] It's Wi-Fi connected.

That is all I can say to that.

[Kevin] What you're saying is that

someone else was using your router?

[Matthew] Yeah.

Could be anyone.

They'll pick it up in the flats.

I live in a block of flats.

[Kevin] Okay.

You saying these people

haven't received these messages?

[Matthew] I don't know if they have,

but not from me, they haven't, so

[Kevin] You're denying

sending the messages?

[Matthew] Yeah.

Just my name's going around.

Simple as that.

[Kevin] Right, I have no further questions

to put to you, Matthew.

The interview is going

to be terminated at 17:06.

[tense music playing]

[Kevin] And CPS came back to us to say,

"We can't take this forward at this time."

"You don't have enough."

They were absolutely correct.

[sighs]

Was I wrong?

Have we even got the right guy?

I mean, he's telling me

that someone is using his router,

that someone's creating

profiles in his name.

That they're using

an old newspaper article

to point the finger at him.

But who?

Who would be doing this?

[stalker] Can I tell you a secret?

Police won't do anything.

[plastic bag rustling]

[phone dings]

[Kevin] Then, within a few days,

Matthew Hardy goes to a local supermarket

and buys himself another phone.

- [cellphone keys tapping]

- [Kevin] He'd been lying.

[phone dings]

[suspenseful music playing]

[stalker] Hiya.

Hello, you.

Can you help me with something?

Complete mind games.

Oh God, here we go.

It just seemed to snowball from there.

- [phone dings]

- [Lia] Hundreds of messages.

[stalker] What you up to this evening?

Matthew made an account

pretending to be my friend's father.

[stalker] I have to think of

somewhere to go.

[Zoe] And with that profile,

he was messaging girls,

trying to meet them in car parks,

impersonating my friend's father.

- [cellphone keys tapping]

- [stalker] Would love to if you fancy it.

Where is this escalating to now?

There's nothing that's going to stop him.

Where is the limit?

What's up?

Stick to taking your clothes off.

[music fades]

It was clear his net

was a lot wider than just Cheshire.

[tense music playing]

[Kevin] This person had to be stopped.

Stop all the madness.

Stop what's going on.

[phone rings]

Hello. It's Kevin Anderson

from Cheshire Police.

- [phone rings]

- Hi, sorry it's late.

It's Kevin Anderson from Cheshire Police.

- [phone rings]

- Kevin Anderson, Cheshire Police.

This phone number called me,

and I was really reluctant to pick it up.

This guy said that he was called Kevin,

and that he was from Cheshire Police.

- Yeah, just a

- [Lia] I was quite shocked.

I've never been to Cheshire.

Cheshire is miles away from me.

I was thinking,

"Why is Cheshire Police calling me?"

- Yeah, we

- He says, "You're not the only one."

"There's many girls involved."

I didn't know

there were lots of girls involved.

To me, it was about trying to make sure

and convince them

I am taking this seriously.

[Zoe] Kevin was different.

It felt like he cared.

Like, the relief I felt,

I was like, "Thank goodness,

someone's here to help."

I hope I can take someone

to court for you.

I hope I can move it forward

and make your life better.

It was such a relief

after two and a half years,

then, finally, someone was

fighting my battle with me.

[Kevin] But I was looking at it thinking,

"How am I going to work my way

around this?"

Because, firstly, the interview

didn't really take us any further forward,

then, the phones we seized

still have to be examined.

That would take a number of weeks.

Then, cybercrime wasn't

an area I was familiar with.

Every few weeks,

there was new cases coming in.

These cases

just didn't have enough evidence.

It was going to be tough for me now

to try and link everything together,

considering that he's released,

and he's still doing it.

[Lia] It continued and continued.

- He didn't care at all.

- [keys tapping]

- He was creating fake accounts of me.

- [phone dings]

- [phone dings]

- My friends were getting married,

and he messaged the brides

pretending to be me

[stalker female voice]

It has to stay a massive secret.

insinuating that I was accusing them

of having affairs.

- [phone dings]

- [stalker female voice] You know

over the last few months with her

You can't tell anyone.

It all sort of came to a head

on the eve of the wedding.

Disguised as Lia,

he'd managed to convince the groom

that his bride had been having

sexual relations with his father,

which were totally untrue,

but he'd managed to create that doubt.

- [phone dings]

- [indistinct arguing]

He was doing it on WhatsApp

with my picture and my name.

[Kevin] It was very, very strange.

It was clear, for some reason,

that Mr. Hardy had pursued her

intentionally for something.

What that was, I don't know,

but he was going around her

and her friends, family.

It was just horrendous for her,

absolutely horrendous.

She didn't deserve

what was happening to her at all.

He had no connection to her

before it happened,

and she had no connection to him.

So why he singled her out,

I still don't know.

Like a relentless machine

that just kept going,

and we haven't managed to stop it.

Sometimes you just can't.

Cases will fail.

Luckily, something happened

One day, an old friend of mine,

he said that someone

had been impersonating him on Instagram,

and he messaged me,

"Whoever it is has slipped up

and accidentally recorded a live video

on a fake account of mine."

When I went to look

at the screen recording

I knew straightaway.

It was my friend's nephew, Matthew Hardy.

I've got you.

I know it's you, Matthew.

[stalker] Don't know who he is.

[Sabrina] Are you for real?

It's just crazy.

So, I needed to go further.

I would call him,

record him,

get him to admit what he'd done.

[line calling]

[line calling]

- [Matthew] Hello?

- Hiya, Matthew.

Hiya, yeah.

[Sabrina] I was going

to try and befriend him,

so he could get some help,

go and see a psychiatrist.

You accidentally went live

on that fake profile

[Matthew] I get you.

- You have put me through a lot of sh*t.

- What do you mean?

Making fake accounts up and

I wish I knew

why you do this to people or

All this crap that I'm a stalker

and all this sh*t.

I don't stalk anybody.

They class it as that,

but it's not really stalking.

- Mm.

- I don't stalk anyone, so

[Sabrina] I wanted you to get my trust,

because obviously with things

that have gone on,

people do absolutely hate you,

and I thought I can get to be your friend,

then you can trust.

- They don't understand me, that's why.

- They don't understand?

They don't understand me, no.

Yeah.

Why? What makes you What made you do it?

Was it boredom? Was it revenge?

[Matthew] Yeah.

A lot of people pissed me off, so

[Kevin] Sabrina disclosed to me

a phone call.

Kevin, he came to mine.

We did a statement.

He had a listen to it.

His voice is is unique,

so as soon as she started playing it,

I could tell that was him.

And he discloses

quite a lot of things to her.

He doesn't admit what he's doing,

but in a roundabout way you can tell

he's trying to admit what he's doing.

[exhaling]

With that, he accidentally

went live on an Instagram

where you could see

his face right at the start of the clip.

And I took that away

as part of the evidence to use.

With that, the phone downloads

from his devices came back to me.

I was gobsmacked about the size of them.

There was anywhere up to 8,000-9,000

separate entries to go through.

Every time someone makes any type

of contact through a phone network,

they will leave a digital footprint.

I contacted the mobile phone companies.

The phone connections

that were going to the nearest mast

was in Northwich.

It showed the location of the phones

were in an area

where Mr. Hardy's flat was.

Again, alone, not enough.

They don't make the case for you.

It's about making the link to the victims

and say that there was

a connection made from that router

that was in Mr. Hardy's house

to the victim.

I knew it was him.

I just couldn't link it securely.

[sighs]

I felt we were running out of time.

[sighs]

[tense music playing]

[footsteps approaching]

This is my file of evidence.

This is the evidence that I gathered.

At the time, I worked in an office,

at a solicitor's,

and I done it

like how I would have a court bundle.

[Kevin] When it came through

and I opened it up,

it was like,

"Oh my God, there's just so much of it."

It was almost like

an investigation on its own.

So, it's screenshots

of every account, every message,

every fake profile,

every picture that they used,

and now, let's say,

there's about 700 or more pages there.

The amount of data

that she was providing was phenomenal.

I just felt like no one was listening,

and I was scared as well, like,

if something did physically happen to me

It's there.

Someone can look at it.

Unfortunately, that's the truth.

[suspenseful music playing]

That, to me, was going to be the nugget.

We've now got evidence

to make the links back to Mr. Hardy.

For example, there was

a lot of pictures on his phone.

If I can get something that matches up,

then we've got a chance

of going somewhere.

I could see somebody with dark hair.

I couldn't believe it.

I recognized myself straightaway.

Now, there's no reason

for those pictures to be on that phone

if this person's got no connection to Lia.

So I knew straightaway

we've got a piece of evidence there.

Links, IP connections,

more links with some of the messages

I managed to find on some of the phones.

They match up things from his phone

to some of the victims

and more connections

with Matthew Hardy.

We've now got a chance here.

I was actually visiting somebody,

and I had to excuse myself.

I said, "I'm expecting this call.

Is it okay?"

He said, "Yeah, that's fine."

So I went outside, took the call,

and it was the CPS phoning me direct

to say, "We're going to go with this."

"This is a strong case.

We're going to take it to court."

"I'm authorizing charges."

"Get the file ready."

Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

[line calling]

[Lia] A few months later,

I get a phone call from Kev and he says,

"I think I've done it."

"I've got permission to charge him."

[voice breaks] And he said,

"Thanks to your yellow file,

all the evidence

we've done it."

[Abby] That meant so much.

It put something right, I think,

in my heart.

Finally, we're being heard.

[tense music playing]

[Sirin] Most women can relate

to that feeling of being unsafe,

of being watched, of feeling like prey.

When I first started reporting the story,

I wasn't really so interested

in why Matthew did it.

But then, the more I learned

from digging into Matthew's life,

the more I realized

this story was more complicated

than I initially thought.

In multiple police interviews,

Matthew had always denied wrongdoing,

so what came next, came as a shock.

[solicitor] There's a document's entitled,

"Prepared Statement, Matthew Hardy,

30 September, 2021."

Matthew and his solicitor

put in a statement.

[solicitor] And it reads,

"I wish to admit the sets

of offenses listed on the document."

"I've been very lonely

and alone in my flat."

"I know I have got myself in trouble,

and I am sorry for what I have done."

[Sirin] He pled guilty.

If you plead guilty before trial,

you can get a 25% reduction

in your sentence.

[beep]

- [interviewer] What's your full name?

- I'm Matthew James Hardy.

[Sirin] Matthew also made a submission,

things to mitigate his crimes

[Matthew] I just struggle

with social media in general.

- [interviewer] Right.

- [Matthew] Shouldn't be on it.

[Sirin]for the judge to consider

that Matthew does want to change.

[Matthew] I struggle to understand

when enough's enough,

and I'm trying to get support.

[interviewer] That's what you need.

[Matthew] I'm going to get

the support I need

and get a life and start trying to stop.

[Sirin] Should he be worried

about going to jail?

No, and that is

because hardly any stalkers go to jail.

[Kevin] Now we've just got to wait

for the sentencing.

You're at the mercy of other people.

There's nothing you can do

to influence that,

so there's a bit of trepidation about what

is actually going to be the conviction.

Just 0.1% of stalkers receive

a criminal conviction, 0.1%.

And of that 0.1%,

the average custodial sentence

is around 13 and a half months.

Maybe he'll walk free that day.

It's unthinkable

if he was allowed to walk out of there

because he would go straight back

to doing what he's been doing.

[tense music playing]

This was the day

that I'd been waiting for.

[tense music continues]

I just couldn't help

but keep glancing over at him.

Because I was trying to get

into my head that this is the person

that has ruined your life

for the last ten years.

[Sirin] So what Matthew's lawyers argued

was that Matthew didn't really understand

what he was doing.

He didn't really mean to hurt people.

He is somebody who was extremely isolated,

who didn't have a job,

who didn't seem to have much money,

who didn't seem to have any friends.

He was reaching out to people to connect.

When they didn't want to be friends,

he got angry and lashed out online.

[Sabrina] His defense barrister was saying

about his conditions that he's got,

and he doesn't know what he's doing.

I thought the judge is going to feel sorry

for Matthew now,

not about his victims

and what he's done to them.

I did feel sorry for him, I think,

when I heard about the things

he's gone through in his past,

the rejection he went through

when he was young.

[Matthew] I get picked on

because I'm different,

because of my autism.

[Sirin] Matthew's lawyer put forward

a report from a forensic psychologist.

The forensic psychologist argued

that Matthew's culpability

should be reduced

because Matthew's autistic

and his learning disability.

How much did Matthew understand

of what he was doing?

And so the judge, basically,

should go a bit more easy on Matthew.

It is important to consider

that a person is autistic,

along with all of the other factors

that build up their identity.

At the same time, as an autistic person,

I do find it disappointing

when autism is used as a defense.

And that's because I think

it feeds into these negative stereotypes

that people have about autistic people,

as cold, as lacking empathy, as uncaring,

as not understanding other people.

We might struggle to understand

some social cues sometimes,

but there's a huge difference between

struggling to understand social cues

and intentionally causing

another person harm.

It explains some of what he did,

but it didn't excuse it.

And me feeling sorry for him

was quite short-lived

when I started reflecting back

on the moments that he was mocking me.

And when he knew I was crying.

He didn't have any empathy.

I feel he knew what he was doing

the whole time.

He knew the impact he was having on me.

I feel it spurred him on to do it more.

[Lia] They say that he didn't understand

fully what he was doing.

I don't agree with that because

he actually put laughing faces to me

and said, "Good luck proving who I am."

"Sending screenshots

to the police is pointless."

"I'm just getting started."

So he knew that this behavior was wrong,

but he still continued to do it.

[Sirin] Now

it was the moment of sentencing.

We were going to find out

what was going to happen to Matthew.

[tense music continues]

So we go back into the courtroom, and

[tense music builds]

He was going to prison for nine years.

Nine years, like, that's crazy.

Nine years!

Nine years! Ah.

I had to pinch myself.

I couldn't believe it.

Matthew caused so much harm

to so many people

for such a long time.

I think that's what the sentence reflects.

It was a massive relief.

But then, also,

when I sat on it a bit, I was like,

"Why was it so hard to get to this point?"

How can you go from being sat

in a room with someone saying to you,

"He's not actually doing anything wrong,"

to a nine-year sentence?

Nothing changed.

Like, he was doing the same things then

as what he was being charged for.

Why is there

that big difference in reaction?

Um, so, yeah, I was so happy that it felt

like this time, it really was over.

[soothing music playing]

[Zoe] I do think

it has changed me as a person.

I'm a lot more private than I used to be.

I'm a lot more guarded

about what I tell people.

Yeah, I don't really trust anyone

um, apart from my family, which is

That's quite sad, really,

but that's the way it is,

and that's probably

the way it'll always be.

[Abby] I experienced all these feelings

I've never felt before.

I still have really bad paranoia.

I'm really trying

to work on myself [sniffs]

to become, like,

the person that I used to be.

Every day, I do still now sit and wonder,

"Why did he behave the way he did?"

[David] Online you control the topic,

you control where the conversation goes,

how it flows, who you're seen as

when you talk to them.

That kind of power would be intoxicating,

especially if you'd gone, you know,

your entire high school time

on the outskirts,

not knowing how to talk to anyone.

It doesn't surprise me that that was

what Matthew threw himself into.

Control, power, online.

You're building up

a fake idea of what a person can be.

[Abby] Yeah, social media

you know it's kind of

a bit like doing my fire.

I know that the fire

is completely in my control,

like you feel really strong about it,

really alive.

But with fire,

something could go wrong.

I used to get scared, like,

I could burn myself.

You're in danger.

Be really careful because

you might get hurt.

[somber music playing]