Social media companies came under fire for their lack of moderation last night as BBC Panorama investigated the shocking case of Sam Wall, a social media consultant who pleaded guilty to charges of stalking and sending false messages at Manchester Magistrates’ Court last November.
Her conviction was in relation to two victims – motivational speaker Brad Burton and Manchester businesswoman Naomi Timperley, a well known figure on the North West tech scene and Computer Weekly’s 2nd Most Influential Woman in UK Tech for 2024 – who were targeted with abusive online messages over the past four years.
“She’s ruined my life, I’ve had sleepless nights. Sometimes i didn’t want to get out of bed,” Timperley tearfully told the programme.
Panorama also spoke to other victims who say they were stalked by Wall over a period of more than 10 years. Most of Wall’s victims, including Burton and Timperley said they did not even know Wall, or knew her only very vaguely.
Many of her abusive posts were detailed and lengthy – one was 20,000 words long. Some were shared on LinkedIn, where she had 30,000 followers, and which her victims, some of them members of the media and tech communities, inevitably relied on for networking and promotion.
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Burton was even forced to post pictures of himself online to prove he was not in prison after Wall claimed he had been harassing her for 10 years and had been arrested and jailed. Wall responded by claiming his psychopathic twin was taking the photos and appearing at events to cover up the fact he had been locked up.
“She’s telling everybody that Brad Burton is in jail, but I was actually out in Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset having a curry with him,” a friend of Burton’s told Panorama.
Timperley, who had only met Wall in passing and subsequently became connected on Twitter (X) and LinkedIn, was also targeted with hundreds of messages, accused of criminal damage, destroying Wall’s business and joining up with others to carry out so-called gang stalking. She told the show: “It’s just been hideous, really hideous, and I don’t know why it happened. I’m still really anxious, sometimes I get really sad.”
Wall also falsely claimed Mrs Timperley had been arrested for harassment.
Another alleged Manchester victim, marketing consultant Justine Wright was targeted over a decade. She had briefly employed Wall and, when Wall left, the online stalking began.
Wall repeatedly targeted Wright’s clients – often major companies – with false claims, including that she had conspired with Burton, who she says she has never met, to poison her cat.
Shockingly, although several complaints were made by the victims to the social media companies involved, none of them companies have taken down Wall’s abusive messages, even after Panorama told them about Wall’s conviction two months ago. The BBC added that Wall posted another abusive message about Burton last week.
In fact, even though the Panorama team contacted all of the big four social media firms – LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and X – for comment, only LinkedIn responded, with a statement that it does not allow bullying or harassment on its platform, but cannot comment on individual cases.
Wall’s 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.
Panorama: My Online Stalker premiered on BBC One last night, and is available on demand on iPlayer.
