THE STALKER BEHIND THE SCREEN

When Sabrina Cowley, 43, started receiving accusatory messages on social media, she feared there was someone out to get her

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As I opened yet another message on Facebook, I felt sick. ‘So you’re sleeping with your best friend’s husband

A friend’s husband now?’ it read. Shaking, I typed, ‘Please leave me alone. You’re ruining my life.’ It was 2021 and for the past six years, accusing, scathing messages had filled my inbox. A constant barrage of allegations that I’d had sex with friends’ partners or started sordid stuck in a neverending nightmare, living every day in fear of what would happen next.

It had begun back in June 2015, when I'd gone to visit my late mum's friend. While I was there, I was briefly introduced to a man called Matthew Hardy. 'Hi, I said to him. And that was it, I thought nothing more of him until a few days later. Oddly, he messaged me on Facebook, accusing me of having an affair with my mum's friend's 75-year-old husband.