A woman who ‘made the mistake’ of sharing too much information online found herself the target of a sick stalker who sent anonymous messages detailing how he was going to rape and murder her – then defile her body.
The first gruesome message came through when Sara Manchipp was checking her Facebook on the train. Sara, from Neath, was on her way to work when was shocked by a message from an unknown account.
“It was a full paragraph – a story. At first, I started laughing thinking it was a sick joke. But the more I read I realised it was actually someone who was quite messed up in the head. I did feel like they wanted to cause me harm. I felt that this was totally different to any other message I’d received before. It was the first time I felt really vulnerable and frightened,” Sara said.
The message listed a sick description of rape, murder and necrophilia, saying the sender wanted to cut Sara’s throat and have sex with her while she died – and describing the act in brutal detail – including cannabalism.
Sara, 34, said: “He was going to set my body on fire. Then he was going to dismember me and laugh and then dance around my burning body.”
The events promotional ambassador took a screenshot it and posted it on her Facebook page. When friends started to get in touch warning her that this was worrying, she realised she had been specifically targeted.
“I started to panic; my heart started pounding out of my chest and I felt sick,” she said. Later, more messages arrived from different accounts but with the same tone.
The writer – who she assumed was a man – would list details of Sara’s life. He knew where she lived, and that she was near the sea, and sent disgusting, threatening messages describing how he would like to half drown her, pull her from the ocean, rape her and drown her again.
The messages increased in frequency and included details about her family, her education and her holidays.
“I remember feeling more and more vulnerable. This didn’t seem like a random person contacting anyone on the internet. It felt like a personal vendetta; that he was out to hurt me. I felt very threatened by it,” she said.
Sara started to suspect everyone; her friends, her neighbours, even people she’d known for years and she became hypervigilant. “If I saw a man out I would start to feel a little bit sick because I would think: ‘Is it you who’s sending these messages?’ There was no peace for me. It was a horrible few months.”
Eventually, she spoke to the police, who took her concerns seriously, advising her to report every new message she received from the stalker. “Every single time, within the hour there would be two police officers at my door. I can’t recall how many times because he kept sending messages – at all times of night. I’m so grateful that the police took it seriously. Because when he was sending these messages I was often alone and it would be nighttime – he could have been watching me from the street for all I knew.”
The police tracked the perpetrator down and found he had been targeting other women. He admitted offences against 10 women, was jailed for two and a half years and is now subject to restraining orders.
“At the time I was happy that he would go to prison. It was only afterwards that I thought that sentence wasn’t long enough. For the amount of girls and women that he was terrorising – one month each – that’s terrible. I am glad the case came to court and that it got taken seriously, but I do think there should have been a tougher deterrent,” she said.
Sara now warns her friends and family to be careful about what they post online. “Naively, I’d never thought it would be something that would happen to me. It was quite a shock and it has really opened my eyes to the dangers of what you post on social media. The whole experience has made me a lot more cautious about things like checking in when I go to a gym or restaurant, and sharing information about my family or holidays I’ve been on.
“I now realise that someone could be a friend on Facebook but they may not have my best interests at heart. I used to be a really trusting person, I used to see the good in everybody. I think that may have been my downfall.
“There are dangerous people out there. So now I protect myself in the best way I can by securing my online presence. I’m always pushing out all my friends as well to let them know you shouldn’t be sharing that, or you shouldn’t be checking in here all the time. Just remember that your life is yours and it should be private, and you don’t have to share everything, because, to be honest, the world doesn’t need to know everything about you.”