WHEN Sabrina Cowley, 42, had a chance meeting with a stranger, it sparked a terrifying five-year ordeal.

Here the mum of three exclusively reveals how she and his other victims finally got justice.

Opening a new message on Facebook, my whole body began to shake as I read the words: “So you’re sleeping with your best friend’s husband now?” 

“Please leave me alone,” I replied. “You’re ruining my life.” 

Immediately, I switched off my phone and threw it on to the sofa – I wasn’t sure how much more I could take.

For five years, I’d been living a nightmare.

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It all began in August 2015, when I visited my late-mum’s friend’s house to drop something off.

While I was there, I was introduced to a man called Matthew Hardy, then 23, who was also visiting the friend.

He seemed normal and we exchanged pleasantries before I left.

I thought no more about him, but a few days later he messaged me on Facebook.

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At first, he seemed chatty, but then he accused me of having an affair with the elderly family friend I’d visited.

I told him he was mistaken and explained that the friend had known me since I was a baby.

Hardy replied, saying I could tell him and he promised he wouldn’t tell anybody.

It was all very odd, but I told him to pack it in and didn’t think any more of it – until a week later, when I got another strange message that appeared to be from a man who my mum briefly went out with almost 40 years ago. 

“You got really close to your mum’s partner, didn’t you?” the man wrote. 

I told him I had no idea what he was on about and thought maybe he’d had a nervous breakdown.

But something wasn’t adding up.

I logged on to Facebook and posted about what had been happening since I’d made that visit to my mum’s friend.

Immediately, friends messaged suggesting it could be Hardy – who they’d gone to school with – saying they’d received strange messages from him too.

'I WAS MORTIFIED'

I had a feeling they were right – it seemed too much of a coincidence.

And then I began to get creepy and sexually suggestive messages on Twitter and Instagram.

For work, I taught pole-dancing classes in a local fitness studio, and my colleagues and students told me they’d received messages from various friends of mine, telling them I was having an affair with their boyfriends and husbands, which thankfully they knew wasn’t true.

But I was mortified. 

Other messages accused me of having an affair with an ex-boyfriend of my late mum, while some even questioned whether I was sleeping with my best friend’s husband and a close male friend. 

At first, I felt hurt and confused, but after talking to my friends I pieced it all together – somebody had been setting up fake accounts and pretending to be people I knew, to message me.

They’d also set up accounts in my name and messaged people I knew to say I’d been seeing mutual friends’ partners.

My head was spinning – I couldn’t believe what was happening. 

Every day, the messages came one after the other, accusing me of having affairs, saying the same thing over and over.

If I blocked one account, another would instantly appear. It was relentless.

For years, I’d suffered from anxiety and depression, which I took medication for, and now it was getting worse.

I contacted the police about it in September 2015, but I felt like they weren’t taking me seriously.

They suggested I try “blocking” Hardy, but of course, he had so many fake accounts in different names, I didn’t know which were my genuine friends and which were him.

He seemed to know everything about me, including where I lived and worked.

I told the police I couldn’t come off social media, either, as I used it for work, and I didn’t see why I should have to anyway. 

All the while, the unwelcome messages continued. The level of information my stalker was able to gather about me was frightening. 

He was very clever and manipulative, and delved into my past to find people I’d lost touch with.

He seemed to know everything about me, including where I lived and worked.

I became scared for my safety and for that of my children, unsure what else Hardy was capable of, or how far he’d go to cause me further distress. 

Before going out alone, or with my boyfriend or children, I checked the streets for Hardy, constantly looking over my shoulder, scared he’d suddenly appear.

Thankfully, he never did.

Although I never actually saw him in the flesh after that first meeting, he dominated my thoughts and completely controlled my life. I was a wreck. 

Eventually, I got so desperate that I contacted Hardy directly.

I asked him why he was stalking me, but he wouldn’t tell me. Nor did he stop. 

In February 2018, I had a third child, a little girl.

'SCARED LITTLE BOY'

It should have been such a happy time, but instead I struggled to bond with her as I tried to cope with Hardy’s harassment.

Shortly afterwards, my relationship broke down, due to the stress the two years of being stalked had inflicted on me.

Still, the messages continued. 

I went to the police on several more occasions, but they told me there was a lack of evidence and the case couldn’t be taken forward. 

Then finally, in February last year, my complaint was taken up by PC Kevin Anderson from Northwich Local Policing Unit after Cheshire Police caught Hardy when a victim recorded his voice on a phone call.

I was shocked to learn there were more than 100 logs on the system about him, from 62 different female victims.

He had been arrested 10 times and voluntarily interviewed a further three times. 

In October last year, Hardy appeared before Chester Crown Court, where he admitted 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 from 2013, which banned him from using false details on social-networking sites.

He also admitted stalking a further four women. 

In court, I read my impact statement, while looking at Hardy.

I said: “I am suffering from depression and anxiety. I have not been able to sleep for years.

"I couldn’t bond with my daughter because I was on a high state of alert.”

He refused to look at me and I thought he looked like a scared little boy.

The court heard Hardy relentlessly messaged his victims, leaving them in constant fear that they were being watched and of what would happen to them next. 

He set up fake social media profiles for the women he targeted, stealing images from their real accounts and spreading lies about them.

He sent images of one victim in her underwear to people, and in other cases, while masquerading as his victims, he implied that they would offer sexual favours or send intimate pictures of themselves.

When Hardy was jailed for nine years it was believed to be the longest sentence in the UK for a stalking offence.

I was shocked and upset when, earlier this month, a court of appeal reduced it to eight years, as the original term was deemed excessive. 

I hugged PC Anderson when Hardy was found guilty.

I was so relieved he could no longer hurt me or any other women. I felt I could breathe again – but I was angry it had taken so long.

I hope in the future, stalking over social media is taken more seriously and social media platforms made more accountable.

People think online abuse is just a few harmless messages, but Hardy completely took over and ruined my life for over five years, destroying my relationship and making me a shadow of the person I used to be.

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Although my nightmare is over, I still feel on edge most of the time, and every time I get a new message or a friend request online, dread washes over me.

But I refuse to let my stalker ruin my future – and I hope his other victims do the same. 

• For help and support if you are being stalked, call the National Stalking Helpline on 0808 802 0300 or visit Suzylamplugh.org.

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