DECLARING herself a victim of ‘gang stalking’, Sam Wall alleged her twisted attackers were “psychopaths” who had “blood on their hands” after a 10-year ordeal.
The social media specialist, from Manchester, galvanised an army of furious online followers who joined her in writing thousands of posts – yet, not a single word of it was true.
Sam Wall has been convicted of five counts of stalking offences[/caption]
Wall (left) met Brad Burton (middle) at a motivational speaking event[/caption]
Brad’s reputation as a motivational speaker was nearly ruined by Wall’s false claims[/caption]
His life was left in turmoil by the lies[/caption]
It was actually Wall who was the stalker behind an eight year campaign against three victims, including motivational speaker Brad Burton, 52.
Brad, who met her only once, and briefly, tells The Sun she cost him “hundreds of thousands of pounds” in opportunities that saw his business collapse and compared the ordeal’s “plot twists” to a “Hollywood film”.
Among the most surprising was Wall’s “gang stalking” claims which she made on a true crime podcast, presenting herself as the victim, shortly after police cautioned her.
Wall, now 55, claimed to be getting “bricks through my windows” and that her car was “destroyed”, also producing fake pictures. She even claimed that Brad was sentenced to 12 years in jail for harassing her.
It forced the motivational speaker to film a livestream video of himself walking into WH Smith to show the date of the day’s newspapers. Even then she dismissed it as photos taken by his ‘twin brother’.
“It’s a bit like Baby Reindeer,” Brad tells The Sun. “I only met her for 30 seconds at a motivational speaking event and took a selfie with her. It was f***ing crackers.
“She was everywhere and was the ultimate reverse influencer. Even one guy who I worked with, who had a £100million business, said ‘There’s no smoke without fire’, yet I did nothing.
“There was nothing I could say to change people’s minds. It was like a zombie bite, you had no idea who had been infected and had turned and now believed what she was saying.
“There were thousands of posts, she weaponised the internet and made a compelling argument too. It was like a Hollywood film and she’d call me the ‘Salford Messiah’
“One day, she was bombarding me and something terrible came through my head. I breathed it in, went ‘F***’, and for the next four seconds it made sense to kill myself.
“Fortunately, I didn’t go through with it. I went to the doctor for antidepressants. As a motivational speaker, I’m known for my mental fortitude yet even I thought that.
“For other people it could have ended with tragic outcomes, and that’s not me being dramatic or jazz hands about it. That’s how close this thing got.”
Last year, Wall pleaded guilty to five charges, including stalking and sending false messages, and is due to be sentenced later this month after four delays.
‘Weaponised’ posts
The stalker even filmed a promotion video for Brad’s tour[/caption]
Brad’ event was held at the Aston Villa Football Club in 2019[/caption]
The 52-year-old revealed he nearly took his own life[/caption]
The stalker, who faces up to six years in prison, is the focus of new Channel 4 documentary Social Media Monsters, in which three victims bravely speak out.
Brad is among them and tell us it cost him “hundreds of thousands” worth of business and saw one paid-for subscription group he built up over five years “collapse in minutes”.
“It was like playing whack-a-mole,” he tells us. “I was losing gigs, people stopped hiring me to promote their events and for speaking events. My business collapsed.
“I lost hundreds of thousands of pounds of business, and any smattering of crumbs left on the table she was hammering down on.”
Wall spun a powerful, convincing narrative, utilising her skills as a social media strategist to lure in countless well-meaning champions for her cause online.
One post from Wall was 20,000 words long[/caption]
Brad filmed a livestream video of himself walking into WH Smith to show he wasn’t in jail for harassing Wall[/caption]
In the livestream, Brad showed the daily newspaper but Wall claimed it was his twin[/caption]
Brad’s ordeal began two years after a 30-second encounter at a 2019 motivational speaking event attended by 200 people at Aston Villa Football Club where he happily agreed to take a selfie with her.
At the time, he says, it seemed “innocuous and pretty inconsequential.”
She told me it was ‘an amazing day’… there was nothing special or memorable about the chance meeting. It was one selfie of thousands I’ve done over the years
Brad Burton
Brad recalls: “She told me it was ‘an amazing day’… there was nothing special or memorable about the meeting. It was one selfie of thousands I’ve done over the years”.
Wall even filmed a video promotion for Brad’s tour, stating it was “so amazing”, that his words had “blown my head off” and urged others to attend future dates.
But two years later a barrage of lies began, leading hordes of her online followers to suspect he had wronged her and some to believe he was her scorned and vengeful ex.
“It was a modern-day witchhunt. It was thousands and thousands of posts, because she would post 10 a day on every social media platform and they all had different audiences.
“Everywhere I looked I was getting bombarded. If I responded it would give her more power and I didn’t want to jeopardise our police case. She weaponised the internet and her followers against me.”
Fellow victims
Justine Wright was also a victim of Wall’s after hiring her for a few freelance projects[/caption]
Naomi Timperley briefly met Wall at a conference but came under attack after offering her advice online[/caption]
And Brad wasn’t alone. In 2014, Manchester entrepreneur Justine Wright hired Wall for a few freelance projects. But once it ended Wall launched a furious tirade online.
The remarks about Justine and her business were “shockingly slanderous”, leaving her “mortified and powerless” and believing “this is never going to stop”.
[Wall said] I’d ruined her life, tried to poison her cat, put tracking devices on her laptop, had broken into her house, staged a burglary [and] was not paying taxes. It was just relentless
Justine, victim
Recalling some of the false claims, Justine says: “I’d ruined her life, tried to poison her cat, put tracking devices on her laptop, had broken into her house, staged a burglary [and] was not paying taxes. It was just relentless.”
It lasted four months until she blocked Wall, believing it would otherwise “destroy my life”. She didn’t think about reporting her to the police, suspecting they would dismiss it as “a few messages on Twitter”.
Shocking conviction rate
And, for all too many victims, that is the reality.
Less than two per cent of stalking and harassment complaints end with a conviction and only five per cent result in someone being charged, according to the Suzy Lamplugh Trust.
The charity found that in the year to 2022, there were 1.8million victims of stalking – up 20 per cent from the previous year – and only 98,863 reports were made to police.
Naomi Timperley, a digital innovation consultant, was also targeted by Wall, who she briefly met at a conference, after offering her advice online.
Spotting some of the rambling posts she suggested: “If you’ve got beef…take it offline… it’s not good for your freelance reputation if you’re ranting about people.”
Naomi was hit with the same stalking claims – but Wall went even further, alleging all three victims had conspired together to ‘ruin her life’.
‘It was like being in an episode of Black Mirror’
Sam Wall’s Facebook shows her to be against bullying[/caption]
Wall posted a solicitor’s letter and claimed she was being ‘prosecuted for telling the truth’[/caption]
In Wall’s LinkedIn bio she asks connections to ‘refrain from targeting me’[/caption]
Desperate to stop her character assassination, Brad sent a cease and desist letter, which cost him £3,000, after he was warned it would cost £15,000 to take Wall on in the courts – a sum he didn’t have.
But Wall posted the letter online and the attacks merely intensified.
He compares the ordeal to “an episode of Black Mirror” and brands Wall “the biggest nemesis of my life”. She even wrote a 20,000-word article about his ‘abuse’.
In addition to claiming he too had poisoned her cat, smashed her windows, slashed her car tyres and ruined her reputation, she also said he “planted drugs in her garden” and was sending “death threats daily”.
By 2023, Wall was cautioned by police and her victims believed “finally this nightmare is over”, however Naomi says “ironically it became worse”.
“The posts became darker and darker, she finally felt that she was untouchable,” says Naomi, who resorted to beta blockers to stop her panic attacks.
The posts became darker and darker, she finally felt that she was untouchable
Naomi, victim
Wall went on a true crime podcast and recounted her “very, very strange time” as the victim of “gang stalking” – where Brad had “recruited other individuals”, who she labelled “psychopaths”.
“I was getting bricks through my window, my car was getting destroyed, and what happens is you don’t actually realise that this is all connected,” Wall told the podcast.
She regularly posted “Survivor of #Gangstalking” online, that she was preparing for “My Ultimate Battle For Justice” and claimed Brad was in prison with “no chance of bail”.
Wall is due to be sentenced later this month[/caption]
Wall previously broke her bail conditions multiple times[/caption]
He recalled having filmed a video of himself picking up the day’s paper to disprove it, adding: “Then she said I’ve got a twin who’s pretending to be me. But he’d need to have the same tattoos, same haircut, same dental work. It’s bonkers.
Finally Wall was arrested in July 2023, after the victims had to “chase and chase” and Brad made a 400-mile-round trip to Stockport police station where he refused to leave without an update.
She was granted 30-day bail conditions but as Brad says: “We reached 31 days and boom, it started all over again”.
Wall claimed to be being “prosecuted for telling the truth” and insisted “I’m not apologising”. She broke bail conditions multiple times including with a 54-tweet rant about her ‘wrongful arrest’.
Brad with Justine and Naomi, Wall’s three victims who have spoken out[/caption]
Naomi and Brad embracing moments after hearing Sam was found guilty[/caption]
In November last year, Wall pleaded guilty to five charges just before her trial began. She’s due to be sentenced later this month.
Surprisingly, Brad says he forgives her, mainly due to not wanting to harbour resentment any longer, but admits she’s “made that really f***ing tough to do”.
While leaving court, after Wall was warned to avoid her victims at all costs, Brad says “she turned around, looked at me and gave me this massive smile”. She also smiled at her other victims.
“I’m thinking, ‘Where’s Michael Bay?” Brad adds. “It’s like a Hollywood film. What she did was tantamount to throwing a grenade in someone’s house to blow everything up.
It’s been horrible. My wife never signed up for this, nor did I. Even my boy Ben, who was sitting university exams, asked ‘ Mum, is Dad going to prison?’ because of what he’d read.
Brad, victim
“It’s been horrible. My wife never signed up for this, nor did I. Even my boy Ben, who was sitting university exams, asked ‘ Mum, is Dad going to prison?’ because of what he’d read.”
The victims are furious about the lack of support from social media platforms, who didn’t take down Wall’s posts despite them being reported multiple times.
Naomi finds it appalling that users are “put in LinkedIn jail for 24 hours if you send too many messages” and snaps of mums breastfeeding are often taken down on Instagram and Facebook, yet “they wouldn’t do anything about this”.
And Brad fears for future stalking and harassment victims, knowing the monsters could utilise AI software to cause utter havoc and manipulate things to support their claims.
Imagine if she had access to AI software like Grok, ChatGPT or Sora, how she could have used that?
Brad Burton, victim
“There was no new low that Wall wouldn’t sink to,” he says. “Imagine if she had access to AI software like Grok, ChatGPT or Sora, how she could have used that?
“Everything is online – my photos, my voice and video footage of me from YouTube. She could have had fun and games.
“She could have made me say or do anything that she wanted, or claim to have ‘uncovered something from the 90s’ all using AI. She could have easily destroyed me.”
Social Media Monsters airs at 10pm tonight on Channel 4 or you can stream all five episodes of the series online now.
