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The meeting between motivational speaker Brad Burton and Sam Wall lasted less than a minute. She posed for a picture with him after attending one of his workshops and later left a glowing video testimonial. It was unremarkable, Brad says. “Just one of the thousands of people I must have met over the years.” Two years later, she started attacking him online. In hundreds of posts, Wall described him as manipulative, a psychopath and a sociopathic abuser. Day after day, she accused him of making death threats, breaking her windows and killing her cat – all false allegations.
“How do you prove a negative? That I had not poisoned the cat? Social media and the way it works, it’s guilty until proven innocent.”
Sam Wall has been told to expect a prison sentence after pleading guilty to stalking and harassment. Wall, 55, a social media consultant, pleaded guilty to charges of stalking and sending false messages at Manchester Magistrates’ Court last November. Her sentencing was delayed for a second time last week, but the judge told her to expect a prison sentence. Wall’s legal team said a psychiatric report shows she has a chronic delusional mental health illness.
Her conviction was in relation to two victims – Brad and businesswoman Naomi Timperley – who were targeted with abusive messages over the past four years. Wall continued her online attacks even after she had been charged with stalking. Manchester-based entrepreneur Justine Wright was targeted over a decade. She had employed Wall for a couple of months and, when Wall left, the online stalking began. Justine is a marketing consultant and Wall repeatedly targeted her clients – major companies – with false claims. Justine had never met Brad, but Wall accused her of conspiring with him to poison her cat.
People might be surprised by the number of victims and that Wall did not disguise her identity, says Rory Innes, chief executive of the Cyber Helpline, a charity that helps victims of online crime. But he says this is common. It’s a horrendous case and she will be causing harm to lots of people and changing their lives. But this is happening to hundreds of thousands of people every year.
Panorama has spoken to other victims who do not want to be identified. One says he was stalked for more than a decade, during which time Wall sent thousands of texts, plus 10,000-word emails to his friends and business contacts. Wall would also turn up at his work pretending to be his wife, he says, and accusing him of domestic abuse. All of the victims complained to the social media companies about Wall’s posts, but they have not been taken down.
Social media lawyer Paul Tweed tells Panorama he was not surprised the companies had failed to help. “They decide what should be taken down, they decide when it should be taken down and how it should be taken down. And they will say, when you ask them, that they comply with the law,” he says. The companies have not taken down Wall’s abusive messages, even though Panorama told them about Wall’s conviction two months ago. Last week, she posted another abusive message about Brad.
The charity Cyber Helpline has estimated that 600,000 people report online stalking to the police every year. Another charity, the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, says fewer than 2% of stalking and harassment complaints end with a conviction. A major review by policing bodies last year found a lack of understanding of online stalking and evidence of the police failing to take it seriously. The advice to victims of online stalking is basic – don’t engage, keep records and report it to the police. But the people Panorama spoke to did that, and the abuse continued.
A spokesperson for GMP says delays in the wider criminal justice system affected Wall’s case and the force achieved positive outcomes for more than 3,000 victims of this type of crime last year. We approached Wall for comment, but she did not respond. Meanwhile, Brad says he forgives her. “I hope she gets the help that she needs and she finds peace in her own life,” he says.
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