Can I tell you a secret?

This was a good and necessary series. It really puts into perspective how underestimated the effects of stalking, online and IRL, are. It is shocking to hear how long, how many victims, and how much police attention (and neglect) it took for this case to get the treatment it deserved. My one reservation, as noted by some other reviewers, is the focus on the perpetrator in a way that seems keen to explain away his culpability, and the lack of pushback on his mother’s narrative. I also think that, given the overindulgence of his autism, it would have been only fair to others with autism to actually produce some more hard stats on the correlation between autism and criminal behaviour. And if there are not the stats to support this narrative, which I doubt there are, to actually make that very clear. Just having a few people with autism make some remarks on this is simply not enough when the reporting was so fixated on this aspect of his personality to explain away his behaviour.

This story of online stalking is fascinating, terrifying, and sad. The complex backstories of the victims and perpetrator are presented. I’d like to emphasise that autistic people are not necessarily more likely to commit crimes like this because I think that the mother and one policeman lean too heavily into this defence. While autism does affect people’s social perception, it doesn’t mean they cannot know right from wrong. The story sounds more like one of addictive and malicious behaviour online, which is sadly not uncommon.

I thought this was a real thought-provoking podcast and an interesting case. Some of the reviews here seem to be made by people who have very little knowledge of real world journalism. The mother is entitled to be heard, I don’t agree with what she said and it made me angry but it is not the journalists fault. They aren’t the police. They are there to hear all sides and report them. Maybe those reviewers should stick to podcasts with less triggering topics for them. Plenty of warnings are given.

I started listening to this podcast after hearing an advert for it on a different show. I’d not actually come across this story before and it intrigued me. Very interesting case on online stalking and its ramifications but personally and legally. Definitely worth a listen