Web of destruction

Gurnaaz Kaur

In this digital age, the horror of cyberstalking constitutes real harm, and like all other crimes, it needs to be taken seriously. With that as its pivot, ‘Can I Tell You A Secret?’, a true crime two-part docuseries on Netflix, follows three women — Zoe Jade Hallam, Abby Furness and Lia Marie Hambly — and through them the hundreds of victims who were targeted by Matthew Hardy, an unemployed man from Northwich in Cheshire, considered as UK’s ‘most prolific’ cyberstalker.

Zoe, Abby and Lia are all successful women who made sure to give a glimpse of their everyday joys on social media. Little did they know that their strong online presence would turn into a source of despair.

All stories begin with a similar message from a stranger (mostly female) that says, ‘Can I tell you a secret’. In no time, that random message becomes a barrage of messages from many people across different apps. Things escalate into fake profiles of these women from where their relatives, friends, colleagues and employers get messages, some giving out their private details and pictures. This is just the beginning of the harassment that these and countless other women have faced at the hands of Hardy.

From terrorising them to maligning their reputation by impersonating them, Hardy does it all sitting in his sparsely-equipped apartment. The women not only deal with troubled relationships because of the misunderstandings caused by him, but also experience fear and chaos with the bombardment of messages and calls from the stalker they are unable to identify. Terrified to live alone or even leave their houses, they withdraw from their usual course of life and look at everyone around with a doubt.

Based on The Guardian podcast of the same name, the series also focuses on how the distraught victims went to the local police seeking help, but were fobbed off as ‘no crime was committed’. Until one officer, PC Kevin Anderson, takes it upon himself to investigate the matter. With the help of Lia Marie Hambly’s 700-page record of Hardy’s venomous, explicit conversations with her friends and family, Anderson is able to press charges.

The documentary also includes interviews of Hardy’s school friends, shedding light on his teenage days from when he began his offences back in 2006. It also talks about his undiagnosed autism (which his lawyer later uses in his defence). Throughout the series, you feel disturbed, shocked and even terrified by the details that unravel. To finally see justice being served, although after years of devastation that Hardy causes to his victims, makes you believe in ‘victory of good over evil’.

While the series is a first-person account of the three women, police officers and others, it’s the dramatisation of events and the voice actors reading out the perpetrator’s messages that convey the stress to the audience. His non-stop communication, depicted by telegraph wires lighting above and around houses, powerfully symbolises the relentless reach of social media and how someone can infiltrate people’s lives in a blink.

PS: It was in 2022 that Hardy was sentenced to nine years in prison for five counts of stalking, later reduced to eight years on appeal.