Netflix’s Can I Tell You a Secret chronicles the crimes of Britain’s notorious cyber stalker, Matthew Hardy. The doc shares stories of Hardy’s victims through personal interviews and the investigation into his crimes, per The Independent. Hardy, one of the UK’s most prolific cyberstalkers, harassed women online by creating fake social media accounts and spreading rumors for more than a decade.
According to The Radio Times, Hardy’s crimes began in 2006 while he was in secondary school. He stalked his female classmates and other women from nearby schools. This continued for years until 2011, when he pleaded guilty to hacking and harassing a former classmate. He also received a suspended prison sentence, 250 hours of community service, and a restraining order. But, his crime continued even after this when he began stalking multiple other women.
The outlet reported that in January 2022, Matthew Hardy finally pleaded guilty to three counts of stalking with intent to cause alarm or distress, two counts of stalking without intent to cause alarm, and breaching a restraining order. He then received a nine-year prison term with a minimum of four and a half years behind bars. In October of that year, an appeals court reduced the sentence to eight years.
Hardy is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence in the UK, stated Dexerto.
Can I Tell You a Secret: What did Matthew Hardy do?
Daily Mail reported that for years, Matthew Hardy used fake social media profiles to impersonate women and tell their families they were having affairs. The ordeals often began with posing as a young woman using a fake profile. He would simply say, “Hey, hun, can I tell you a secret?”
Manchester Evening News stated that Hardy would first gain the trust of his victims and then create rifts amongst their families. Lia, one of his victims, reportedly mentioned that the stalker ruined her life ‘for three years’ after targeting her on Instagram. She said, “People think it’s only just a few messages, but it is not… it is hell.”
Hardy also sent flirty messages to some of Lia’s father’s friends pretending to be her. He also contacted her neighbors, inviting them to her house for tea, and told a neighbor that she was having an affair with her future husband on the woman’s wedding day.
Lia also revealed that Hardy sent her ‘hundreds’ of posts on Instagram and WhatsApp and claimed he was watching her in her hometown, per Daily Mail. Another victim, Jill, said that she “slept with a baseball bat,” fearing that the stalker might break into her house. Jill claimed she even blocked his account, but he always created a new account and continued to harass her.
How was Matthew Hardy caught?
According to Digital Spy, Matthew Hardy’s crime reportedly began as early as 2006. He stalked 25 girls from just one school in Cheshire. He started by spreading rumors, such as cheating boyfriends. But the school was quick to determine Hardy as the stalker. Despite victims reporting his crimes to authorities, they could not take action against him since it took place online. Back then, there were no legal criteria to punish such harassment.
The outlet reported that Amy Bailey, who appears in Netflix’s Can I Tell You a Secret, is one such victim. In 2011, she was 16 years old when Hardy harassed her with over 60 phone calls a day. He also physically stalked Bailey by commenting on her while she washed a car, detailing the color of her top.
Later, Hardy was convicted for hacking and harassing a former classmate named Samantha Boniface. While this resulted in no jail time for him, he eventually pleaded guilty to the same crime against Bailey in 2013. Following this, he received a suspended sentence and served with a restraining order. Nonetheless, his crimes continued. Another victim named Gina Martin reported Hardy, which resulted in his arrest in 2016. However, there was no solid outcome.
For ten years, authorities arrested Matthew Hardy at least ten times but failed to build a case against him. He was always released without prison time. Hardy stalked several women along with their friends and families until Cheshire police constable PC Kevin Anderson made progress in the investigation. With the help of one of Hardy’s victims, Anderon was able to pinpoint a crucial detail and strengthen the case against him, reporting Digital Spy.
According to The Sun and Manchester Evening News, in October 2021, Hardy pleaded guilty to three counts of stalking with intent to cause alarm or distress. Other charges included two counts of stalking without intent to cause alarm and breaching a restraining order from 2013 that banned him from using falsified information on social media accounts. He had also admitted to stalking multiple women.
The Sun stated that in January 2022, he received a nine-year prison sentence, but an appeals court reduced it to eight in October.
Can I Tell You a Secret is now streaming on Netflix.
