Latest / NO FILTER / The Dangerous Obsession that Led to the Murder of Molly McLaren _ True Crime Documentary(M4A_128K)

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The Dangerous Obsession that Led to the Murder of Molly McLaren _ True Crime Documentary(M4A_128K) · NO FILTER

0:05
Speaker 1: On June twenty ninth, twenty seventeen, Joshua Stimpson arrived at
0:10
Speaker 1: Pure Jim in Chatham, Kent, placing his mat next to
0:13
Speaker 1: his ex girlfriend Molly McLaren.
0:19
Speaker 2: The human instinct in you wants to be wrong and
0:22
Speaker 2: you want to feel as though it is just a coincidence.
0:25
Speaker 1: Molly an a grade student in her second year of
0:28
Speaker 1: university with a promising career as a fitness instructor and blogger.
0:33
Speaker 3: Every day I'm reading everyone gets that bit through.
0:40
Speaker 1: It was not pretty. Stimpson a double glazing salesman from
0:45
Speaker 1: Rochester with a history of unhealthy relationship breakups that go undetected.
0:52
Speaker 4: He turned very quickly into this very, very nasty, manipulative character.
0:58
Speaker 5: She was upset.
0:58
Speaker 1: Every day the two would meet through the Internet. Stimpson
1:03
Speaker 1: would use his online presence to wage a reign of
1:07
Speaker 1: terror for twenty one year old Molly McLaren. It's a
1:23
Speaker 1: fresh start next week she starts university and can't wait.
1:31
Speaker 1: Molly is going to study health and fitness at the
1:33
Speaker 1: University of Kent. Like for all young people, UNI means
1:40
Speaker 1: hard work, but also new friends, partying and boys. Fresh
1:57
Speaker 1: As week after settle in, it's time to explore. Kent
2:03
Speaker 1: University is only seven miles away from where Molly grew up,
2:07
Speaker 1: but here there are new students from all over the country.
2:11
Speaker 1: In her first lecture, Molly spots a girl looking nervous
2:14
Speaker 1: and goes to speak to her.
2:17
Speaker 6: We were both on our own, just sort of looking around,
2:20
Speaker 6: sort of that nervous feeling of I don't know anyone
2:23
Speaker 6: right now, but there was like this instant connection between us,
2:26
Speaker 6: and we didn't at the time know what that was,
2:29
Speaker 6: but we were just drawn to one another.
2:33
Speaker 1: Molly's charm means she quickly forms a new group of
2:36
Speaker 1: close friends. They enjoy meeting up and socializing in nearby
2:41
Speaker 1: Chatham as well as Jennifer, Amelia Davis is part of
2:47
Speaker 1: the group. They all share lectures and a love of exercise.
2:52
Speaker 4: Molly was very motivating in UNI, especially when you were
2:56
Speaker 4: close to her.
2:56
Speaker 5: She really could.
2:59
Speaker 4: Motivate everyone around her without kind of much trouble. It
3:03
Speaker 4: was kind of just something that came naturally to her.
3:06
Speaker 5: And just always asking funny questions in lectures. All the
3:10
Speaker 5: lecturers say.
3:11
Speaker 4: Like, you know, the questions she came out with or
3:14
Speaker 4: something she would say is just hilarious, but always just
3:19
Speaker 4: like puts one hundred percent into everything, and that's why
3:21
Speaker 4: she got amazing grades.
3:24
Speaker 1: As well as making new friends and partying, Molly throws
3:27
Speaker 1: herself into study.
3:30
Speaker 7: I think everybody knew Molly right from Fresher's Week in
3:34
Speaker 7: terms of she was such a bouncy, lively personality, always
3:39
Speaker 7: full of enthusiasm. So you know, one of the lectures
3:43
Speaker 7: that I spoke to described as the light that came
3:47
Speaker 7: into the room every day.
3:49
Speaker 6: She'd walk into lecture smile and a coffee in her hand,
3:53
Speaker 6: powered by coffee.
3:54
Speaker 5: Every day with your.
3:55
Speaker 4: Closest friends, it's not always about doing the most exciting
3:58
Speaker 4: things when you're really close. So for us, it was
4:01
Speaker 4: going to the gym together. We'd always have a laugh
4:03
Speaker 4: every time I went with her, and that's where I
4:05
Speaker 4: loved going with her, because she always made it fun.
4:10
Speaker 1: As Molly's friends get to know her, they discover her outgoing,
4:14
Speaker 1: lively personality, something one of her close friends knew well.
4:20
Speaker 1: Molly and Amy grew inseparable when they worked together at
4:23
Speaker 1: Ted Baker in Dartford.
4:27
Speaker 2: My first impressions of Molly was how beautiful she was.
4:31
Speaker 2: We never really saw her without a smile on her face.
4:33
Speaker 2: She was the joker of the pack, shall we say?
4:36
Speaker 2: She always brightened up your day if you were down
4:39
Speaker 2: in the dumps, or if you were having a tough
4:41
Speaker 2: time with the customer, she'd be the first person to
4:43
Speaker 2: come up to you and kind of make a joke
4:44
Speaker 2: out of it and make it all okay again.
4:48
Speaker 1: For students, dating is priority number one, but Molly is
4:52
Speaker 1: looking for something deeper.
4:55
Speaker 2: Molly's dating history it was she never really had a
4:59
Speaker 2: love lot of boyfriends. She was quite passionate about finding
5:03
Speaker 2: the right person, and for her, it wasn't about being
5:06
Speaker 2: in a relationship because everyone else was or because she
5:10
Speaker 2: felt like she should be. It was very much about
5:13
Speaker 2: connecting with somebody on a personal level.
5:17
Speaker 1: The tight knit group of friends lived their lives online,
5:20
Speaker 1: uploading their daily activities to apps like Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook.
5:26
Speaker 1: Molly goes even further and starts her own fitness blog.
5:33
Speaker 6: She was really really into her high intensity training in
5:36
Speaker 6: the gym. She used to love hit circuits and stuff
5:39
Speaker 6: like that, always posting videos of her little gym workouts, saying.
5:44
Speaker 3: That every day I'm lagging. Everyone gets that bit, It's
5:51
Speaker 3: not pretty.
5:55
Speaker 4: When Molly was in university, she started writing her blog
6:00
Speaker 4: and a lot of people read it, and I read
6:03
Speaker 4: all her posts and was sharing them because they were
6:05
Speaker 4: just so motivational, and she just seemed to overcome kind
6:09
Speaker 4: of every barrier she came to, even with things like
6:13
Speaker 4: hard university work, she would always overcome it and do
6:16
Speaker 4: so well and get a really good grade.
6:19
Speaker 1: But behind her good grades and busy social life, Molly
6:23
Speaker 1: is hiding her own personal problems.
6:27
Speaker 6: At the time, I had no idea that Molly had
6:29
Speaker 6: battled their own sort of mental health issues of eating sorders,
6:33
Speaker 6: as had I had done. And I don't know what
6:37
Speaker 6: it is, but when you have had those issues, there
6:40
Speaker 6: is something that draws you to a person. You don't
6:42
Speaker 6: even have to know that. You've just got to look
6:44
Speaker 6: at each other and there's this connection.
6:51
Speaker 1: Molly and Amy had been working together for a while
6:53
Speaker 1: at ted Baker before Molly opened up.
6:57
Speaker 2: It wasn't until later on, when we really developed her
7:00
Speaker 2: relationship that I realized that she had quite a lot
7:02
Speaker 2: of struggles in the background, and that she'd actually been
7:05
Speaker 2: suffering with bliemia nearly the entire time that I knew her.
7:08
Speaker 2: Every day she would have to make conscious decisions to
7:11
Speaker 2: stay on track and not allow this disorder to take
7:15
Speaker 2: over her and she was really good about it. Everyone
7:18
Speaker 2: has bad days, but she was honest. You know, I'm
7:21
Speaker 2: having a bad day. Everyone has a bad day, but
7:24
Speaker 2: this isn't the end.
7:32
Speaker 6: Mollie would always say to me, just find one good
7:35
Speaker 6: thing about every day and your thoughts will shift, your
7:40
Speaker 6: mindset will shift. And she was just so right.
7:43
Speaker 1: Despite issues that have plagued Molly for years, university is
7:47
Speaker 1: helping her to find direction and purpose, but there's one
7:51
Speaker 1: element of her life still missing, a serious relationship. Molly's
8:04
Speaker 1: first year at university has come to an end. Exams
8:07
Speaker 1: are over, it's the summer. It's been a warm, sunny week,
8:14
Speaker 1: and to make things better, Molly has had a match
8:17
Speaker 1: on dating app Tinder.
8:19
Speaker 2: Molly met him online through a dating app and they
8:24
Speaker 2: spoke for quite some time.
8:27
Speaker 1: Her Tinder match is twenty four year old Joshua Stimpson.
8:30
Speaker 1: He lives just nine miles away from Molly in the
8:33
Speaker 1: village of Wildhem in Kent. Molly sends her first message
8:38
Speaker 1: to him in late July, and after a few months
8:40
Speaker 1: of online chatting, they finally meet up.
8:44
Speaker 6: I remember hearing a few times that she'd met someone
8:48
Speaker 6: and that she seemed to be getting on really well,
8:49
Speaker 6: and they've been out on a couple of dates.
8:52
Speaker 4: It was just any you know, normal relationship. They were
8:56
Speaker 4: just chatting. After a while, they started to meet up
9:00
Speaker 4: and then eventually fall into relationship. And I was happy
9:03
Speaker 4: for her, because of course I'm going to be happy
9:06
Speaker 4: for someone who seemed happy at the time.
9:08
Speaker 8: Yeah.
9:10
Speaker 1: As the weeks pass, Molly and Joshua Stimpson spend more
9:13
Speaker 1: and more time together, meals out, nights, drinking, and a
9:17
Speaker 1: shared love of exercise. For Molly, this is her first
9:23
Speaker 1: serious relationship, a person she can open up to and
9:31
Speaker 1: share secrets with.
9:33
Speaker 2: They realized that they had what seemed to be quite
9:36
Speaker 2: a lot in common in sense of kind of the
9:38
Speaker 2: anxiety and their struggles that they'd been through it.
9:40
Speaker 5: You know.
9:41
Speaker 2: He'd said to Molly that he'd also struggled with anxiety
9:45
Speaker 2: and depression, and they kind of connected on that level,
9:48
Speaker 2: and she almost felt as though she needed to help
9:53
Speaker 2: him through his situation and he in turn was helping her.
9:59
Speaker 1: Stimpson was raised mainly by his father after his parents
10:02
Speaker 1: divorced and his mother moved to Stoke on Trent. During childhood,
10:08
Speaker 1: he'd been treated for depression, but what Molly and her
10:13
Speaker 1: friends don't realize is that there's far more to Stimpson's
10:17
Speaker 1: past than he's letting on.
10:20
Speaker 6: She said that she had a bit in common because
10:23
Speaker 6: the person she'd met had said that he'd had some
10:26
Speaker 6: mental health issues himself, and she said, so they could
10:29
Speaker 6: sort of help each other lift each other up. So
10:32
Speaker 6: at the time, I was like, Oh, this is really
10:33
Speaker 6: positive for you, Molly. I'm so glad that you found
10:36
Speaker 6: someone he can relate to and that you seem really happy.
10:41
Speaker 2: They were kind of partners in this dark place that
10:45
Speaker 2: could help each other to see the light on their
10:47
Speaker 2: bad days.
10:52
Speaker 1: Pounds hundreds of thousands of people have been celebrating the
10:55
Speaker 1: start of twenty seventeen at events across the UK to
11:00
Speaker 1: Christmas and New Year. Molly's back at university. She's now
11:05
Speaker 1: been dating Joshua Stimpson for a few months and decides
11:09
Speaker 1: it's time to introduce him to her friend Amelia. Together,
11:14
Speaker 1: they go to a gym session in Chatham, but Stimpson's
11:17
Speaker 1: behavior puts Amelia on edge. When I met him, he.
11:22
Speaker 4: Wasn't overly chatty, and obviously I was always going to
11:26
Speaker 4: be welcoming because that's my friend's boyfriend. I made a
11:29
Speaker 4: joke about that name, and after me and Molly left,
11:33
Speaker 4: he was messaging her later trying to get in between
11:36
Speaker 4: me and Molly.
11:37
Speaker 5: So that shocked me a lot and instantly put me off.
11:43
Speaker 1: Molly and her friends think they know the real Joshua Stimpson,
11:48
Speaker 1: but they would soon discover his true character. Two year
12:00
Speaker 1: old Molly McLaren has been in a relationship for four
12:03
Speaker 1: months with Joshua Stimpson after meeting him on Tinder, but
12:08
Speaker 1: Stimpson is hiding a dark side. He has a dangerous
12:12
Speaker 1: history with ex girlfriends. Molly's friends are now noticing changes
12:18
Speaker 1: in his behavior.
12:21
Speaker 2: If she wanted to have a day of studying, he
12:24
Speaker 2: would tell her that he needed to be there for her,
12:28
Speaker 2: and was very manipulative in his approach for them to
12:30
Speaker 2: spend time together. He would often turn up unannounced at
12:36
Speaker 2: her house.
12:39
Speaker 1: Molly begins to feel she needs more space in the relationship.
12:42
Speaker 1: She texts him. Stimpson doesn't respond well. Conversations between them
12:58
Speaker 1: take a turn for the worse. Molly confides in her
13:01
Speaker 1: friend Amelia.
13:05
Speaker 4: I mean, I've never been spoken to like that, and
13:08
Speaker 4: it surprised me that, you know, he was kind of
13:11
Speaker 4: saying those things and not saying sorry for them. She
13:16
Speaker 4: was still herself, and she was very resilient, but at
13:19
Speaker 4: the same time, there was, you know a lot of
13:21
Speaker 4: moments where he would bring her down emotionally or she
13:25
Speaker 4: would just feel really down in herself because she thought
13:28
Speaker 4: she was in the wrong, because he made her feel
13:30
Speaker 4: like that.
13:32
Speaker 2: I think that's when the crack started to show that
13:35
Speaker 2: a lot of this wasn't sincere that it was all
13:37
Speaker 2: quite manipulative, and it had an end goal, and that
13:40
Speaker 2: was to completely isolate her from her friends.
13:49
Speaker 1: As winter turns to spring, Stimpson's controlling and manipulative behavior continues.
13:57
Speaker 2: She felt suffocated and imagine being stuck within an eating
14:01
Speaker 2: disorder for that amount of years and feeling as though
14:03
Speaker 2: you have no control, finally breaking three of that and
14:06
Speaker 2: then having a person try to control you.
14:08
Speaker 5: It wasn't what she wanted.
14:14
Speaker 1: Molly has had enough and decides to end the relationship,
14:21
Speaker 1: but Stimpson won't accept it and bombards her with a
14:24
Speaker 1: series of messages pleading for them to get back together.
14:43
Speaker 1: What Molly doesn't know is that when previous girlfriends have
14:46
Speaker 1: broken up with him, Stimpson has displayed violent and threatening behavior,
14:51
Speaker 1: including spitting in an ex girlfriend's face. He also slashed
14:56
Speaker 1: the tires of another and threatened to drown her. But
15:01
Speaker 1: a few weeks after, Molly breaks up with him, against
15:04
Speaker 1: the advice of her friends, she takes him back.
15:10
Speaker 4: I advised her not to, but I think she was
15:13
Speaker 4: just so caught up in guilt because he had made
15:15
Speaker 4: a feel like that.
15:18
Speaker 1: But as soon as they get back together, Stimpson picks
15:21
Speaker 1: up right where he left off.
15:25
Speaker 2: He would invite himself out on group nights out that
15:28
Speaker 2: she hadn't invited him to. So, for example, she would
15:31
Speaker 2: go to a gig and he would say, oh cool,
15:34
Speaker 2: what time are we leaving? Or who else is coming?
15:36
Speaker 2: So it was almost without being invited. So I think
15:43
Speaker 2: again that was a flag that really he didn't want
15:47
Speaker 2: her to have any alone time with her friends, and that,
15:50
Speaker 2: for me, isn't really something that.
15:55
Speaker 5: I thought was Okay.
16:02
Speaker 7: Do you know what?
16:03
Speaker 1: That's the first of May.
16:06
Speaker 8: The darling gods have made.
16:07
Speaker 1: It's made. In a last ditch attempt to save the relationship,
16:17
Speaker 1: Molly decides to go on holiday to ten A Reef
16:19
Speaker 1: with Stimpson.
16:21
Speaker 2: She wanted to see how the holiday went, maybe sometime
16:24
Speaker 2: just the two of them would make her feel slightly
16:27
Speaker 2: differently about the situation.
16:29
Speaker 1: But things don't go well, and Molly reaches out to
16:32
Speaker 1: her friends back home.
16:39
Speaker 4: The holiday went not too great, and she texted me
16:42
Speaker 4: while she was on holiday and she said they really
16:44
Speaker 4: weren't getting along. I was very worried because she was
16:54
Speaker 4: just out there with him.
17:04
Speaker 2: She'd said that he just wasn't listening. He just wasn't
17:06
Speaker 2: taking on board anything that she was saying. When she
17:09
Speaker 2: came home, she was set on breaking up with him night.
17:26
Speaker 1: It's a busy Saturday night in the center of Maidston.
17:33
Speaker 1: Molly is out celebrating her twenty third birthday with friends.
17:38
Speaker 1: Although she's been arguing with Stimpson over Facebook messenger for days,
17:43
Speaker 1: there's still a couple.
17:46
Speaker 2: He'd come along and I think the evening was going okay,
17:56
Speaker 2: and then they'd had a little bit of an argument
17:58
Speaker 2: and she'd just kind of snapped. I think she'd just
18:00
Speaker 2: ultimately had enough and she had just said she doesn't
18:03
Speaker 2: want to be with him anymore. And yeah, she broke
18:06
Speaker 2: up with him in the nightclub and he'd become quite aggressive, stimps.
18:11
Speaker 1: And shouts She's finished with me in front of all
18:15
Speaker 1: their friends.
18:20
Speaker 2: And I think that was the first time any of
18:22
Speaker 2: her friends had seen any side of him that wasn't
18:26
Speaker 2: just the norm. And then after that they'd argued quite
18:29
Speaker 2: a lot and she'd ended up blocking him on social
18:31
Speaker 2: media and any kind of communication platforms.
18:42
Speaker 1: But for Molly, her family, and her friends, a cold
18:46
Speaker 1: and calculated nightmare would now begin stimps and starts by
18:53
Speaker 1: attacking her on Facebook.
18:56
Speaker 2: He'd then started to post malicious content on Facebook that
19:01
Speaker 2: she was then made aware of because other friends of
19:04
Speaker 2: Molly's still had Simpson as a contact on Facebook, so
19:07
Speaker 2: she was able to see what he was posting. He'd
19:11
Speaker 2: tried to publicly humiliate her by disclosing information and tagging
19:15
Speaker 2: her family in it so that they would see some
19:18
Speaker 2: of the messages that she'd send and things that she'd
19:22
Speaker 2: been up to with her friends. So again, it was
19:23
Speaker 2: more about this return of public humiliation that clearly he
19:27
Speaker 2: held her responsible for.
19:30
Speaker 1: Molly had spent a lot of time creating an online
19:33
Speaker 1: image based around healthy living and fitness.
19:36
Speaker 3: Everyone gets that good, it's not personally.
19:43
Speaker 1: Stimpson tries to ruin this posting that Molly is using cocaine.
19:48
Speaker 1: He tags her family in the posts so they can
19:50
Speaker 1: see them. Molly is distraught.
19:57
Speaker 4: I saw some of the online abuse. She sent me
20:00
Speaker 4: screenshots off them in a text conversation we would having,
20:04
Speaker 4: and this was the time that we weren't at unique together,
20:07
Speaker 4: but I knew she had people around her. She had
20:09
Speaker 4: her family, she had her friends, and I was really
20:11
Speaker 4: thankful for that. But it was definitely hard because I
20:14
Speaker 4: wanted to be there for her. And I was also
20:16
Speaker 4: so relieved because I thought that was going to be
20:18
Speaker 4: the end of it and he was going to leave
20:20
Speaker 4: her alone.
20:23
Speaker 1: Molly's Facebook friends blocks Stimpson, so he continues his abuse
20:27
Speaker 1: on WhatsApp. She becomes terrified he will turn up at
20:34
Speaker 1: her house and messages family and friends, but then Stimpson
20:56
Speaker 1: posts one particularly chilling message online. Molly now feels like
21:17
Speaker 1: she has to do something. She screenshots and prints out
21:22
Speaker 1: Stimpson's abuse.
21:25
Speaker 2: And that's when she sought advice from her mum, and
21:28
Speaker 2: they decided to go down to the police station and
21:31
Speaker 2: report the behavior and get some advice on how to
21:35
Speaker 2: get it removed.
21:40
Speaker 5: And it was quite chilling because.
21:44
Speaker 2: The police officer at the time had decided that the
21:46
Speaker 2: best course of action would be to phone him and
21:51
Speaker 2: ask him to take the content down.
21:56
Speaker 1: The officer rings Stimpson and places the phone on speaker.
22:01
Speaker 1: Molly and her mother can hear everything that he says.
22:06
Speaker 2: The police officer had said to Stimpson, you know, we're
22:11
Speaker 2: we're not going to have to talk about this again,
22:13
Speaker 2: are we.
22:15
Speaker 1: Stimpson simply replies, aren't we?
22:21
Speaker 4: You know he actually replied with a very arrogant statement
22:26
Speaker 4: and thought he was untouchable.
22:35
Speaker 1: Molly immediately texts her friend Amy.
22:40
Speaker 2: Molly had sent me a message just saying that it
22:42
Speaker 2: was just so cold that there was just no emotion
22:45
Speaker 2: in the conversation at all, and it had frightened her
22:48
Speaker 2: quite a lot.
22:51
Speaker 4: He turned very quickly into this very, very nasty, manipulative character,
22:56
Speaker 4: even more than when they were a relation. I thought he
22:58
Speaker 4: was manipulative when they were together, So when all that
23:01
Speaker 4: started happening, it was nasty. She was upset every day.
23:08
Speaker 2: It had definitely worried her mum, And they'd printed out
23:12
Speaker 2: pictures of Stimpson and handed them out to neighbors so
23:16
Speaker 2: that they could all kind of keep a look out
23:18
Speaker 2: for him.
23:30
Speaker 1: Stimpson goes to work but leaves early. He drives to
23:35
Speaker 1: Asda in Chatham. Here he buys a Sabbattier pairing knife.
23:44
Speaker 1: Later that day, he also buys a pickaxe. That evening,
23:54
Speaker 1: the police call Molly. They tell her that Stimpson has
23:58
Speaker 1: agreed to take down his abuse of media posts. All
24:02
Speaker 1: of her friends have now blocked Stimpson, but he is
24:09
Speaker 1: one step ahead. He's manipulated another girl into friending Molly
24:13
Speaker 1: on social media.
24:20
Speaker 2: He'd managed to gain access to her whereabouts and what
24:24
Speaker 2: she was doing and what she was posting through another
24:26
Speaker 2: individual who had offered to feedback all of her movements
24:31
Speaker 2: to him, somebody that ultimately wanted to harm her, and
24:37
Speaker 2: now had access to where she was and who she
24:39
Speaker 2: was with and what she was doing.
24:52
Speaker 1: Molly's getting ready for a night out with her friends.
24:57
Speaker 1: She's heading out to a bar in Chatham Docks. She
25:01
Speaker 1: posts where she's going on Facebook, but she has no
25:07
Speaker 1: idea that by doing this, she's letting Stimpson know exactly
25:11
Speaker 1: where she's going to be.
25:15
Speaker 2: We were in the pub and we were celebrating her
25:19
Speaker 2: enrollment on her PT course. One of our other friends
25:22
Speaker 2: had been promoted, so we decided to go for dinner
25:26
Speaker 2: and have.
25:27
Speaker 5: A few drinks.
25:29
Speaker 1: Suddenly, the evening takes a dramatic turn. Stimpson shows up
25:34
Speaker 1: out of the blue.
25:41
Speaker 5: He turned up to the bar that we were at
25:43
Speaker 5: with another girl. You know.
25:46
Speaker 2: We sat there and said, oh, how strange, what are
25:48
Speaker 2: the odds? So you know, maybe he was trying to
25:53
Speaker 2: stay out of your way. But actually she'd posted a
25:56
Speaker 2: picture of where she was that afternoon, of where she
25:59
Speaker 2: was going when she was getting ready, and then he
26:02
Speaker 2: turned up. Just what a shame that you'd had to
26:08
Speaker 2: be here to witness him going on another day.
26:10
Speaker 5: And actually she'd said.
26:12
Speaker 2: To us, I'm actually not jealous, and that's how I
26:14
Speaker 2: know I don't love him anymore. So for her, that
26:17
Speaker 2: was confirmation that she'd absolutely made the right decision.
26:23
Speaker 1: Molly had been trying to put Stimpson out of her mind,
26:26
Speaker 1: but he has other ideas.
26:31
Speaker 2: Molly had gone to the bar to find out where
26:33
Speaker 2: to pay for her parking, and he'd been at the
26:35
Speaker 2: bar at the same time and smiled at her.
26:42
Speaker 1: Molly can't believe what's happening. She and her friends can't
26:45
Speaker 1: work out if this is pure coincidence or something more sinister.
26:54
Speaker 1: Stimpson continues to make the girls feel on edge.
26:59
Speaker 2: He walked past the table probably twenty minutes before we
27:03
Speaker 2: decided to leave, and we just said, oh, how childish.
27:10
Speaker 2: There's more than one exit out of the pub, and
27:12
Speaker 2: he didn't need to walk past our table.
27:16
Speaker 5: After we'd finished eating dinner.
27:17
Speaker 2: Molly said she needed to leave because she needed to
27:19
Speaker 2: make it home for Love Island.
27:21
Speaker 5: So a few of us had.
27:22
Speaker 2: Stayed to have an extra drink and she'd left. Only
27:25
Speaker 2: escorted her to her car. No one was worried that
27:27
Speaker 2: he might follow her. Nobody even battered an eyelid.
27:33
Speaker 1: Molly says good night to her friends. She just wants
27:37
Speaker 1: to get home. She thinks she's all alone. Twenty three
27:54
Speaker 1: year old Molly McLaren is enjoying a night out with friends.
28:00
Speaker 1: Whether the night has unfortunately turned sour. Her ex boyfriend
28:05
Speaker 1: Joshua Stimpson has somehow found out where she's drinking and
28:08
Speaker 1: has turned up, unnerving Molly and her friends.
28:14
Speaker 6: I remember seeing an Instagram post where she took a
28:16
Speaker 6: picture in the toilets and it said that feeling when
28:20
Speaker 6: your ex shows up at the same club as you,
28:23
Speaker 6: and so I instantly knew that she was sort of
28:27
Speaker 6: a bit uneasy because she was obviously out with her
28:29
Speaker 6: friends and he's turned up and she's already been threatened
28:32
Speaker 6: at the time and reports him to the police.
28:35
Speaker 1: Molly says good night to her friends and heads to
28:38
Speaker 1: the car park.
28:40
Speaker 6: I just sent the message to say her. Really hope
28:42
Speaker 6: you're okay. Stair away and just make sure you're safe.
28:48
Speaker 1: She has no idea she's being stalked. The next day,
29:02
Speaker 1: Molly McClaren wakes up early at her home in Cobham, Kent.
29:06
Speaker 1: She gets dressed, leaves the house and gets into her car.
29:14
Speaker 1: She drives to her gym in Chatham. She wants to
29:18
Speaker 1: record another fitness blog and post it online. Molly is
29:23
Speaker 1: unaware that she's being followed by Joshua Stimpson. Molly arrives
29:31
Speaker 1: at the gym just before ten am, shortly after Stimpson
29:36
Speaker 1: enters the car park.
29:38
Speaker 2: We'd been chatting in the morning and I've just said
29:40
Speaker 2: to her, you know, don't worry about him, you know
29:45
Speaker 2: that you've made the right decision. And she was feeling good.
29:50
Speaker 1: As it's early in the morning, the gym is eerily quiet.
29:54
Speaker 1: Molly has the place virtually to herself. She happily works
29:58
Speaker 1: out obliviously. Stimpson has followed her again, the second time
30:03
Speaker 1: in twenty four hours. He walks into the gym and
30:09
Speaker 1: climbs the stairs. He seems to change his mind and
30:13
Speaker 1: go back down, but he turns back. Molly is startled
30:35
Speaker 1: from her workout. She stares at him, wondering why he's there.
30:43
Speaker 1: She sends Amy a text and photo of Stimpson.
30:54
Speaker 2: And I'd said to her, I don't think that's right.
30:59
Speaker 2: First of all, he'd up at dinner last night. Now
31:03
Speaker 2: he's at the gym.
31:06
Speaker 1: Molly then works up the courage to talk to him.
31:11
Speaker 2: She'd said to him, you know, why aren't you at work,
31:14
Speaker 2: and he'd just replied saying, well, I don't think that's
31:16
Speaker 2: any of your business.
31:18
Speaker 1: Molly's terrified that he's somehow again in exactly the same
31:22
Speaker 1: place as her.
31:23
Speaker 2: The human instinct in you wants to be wrong, and
31:26
Speaker 2: you want to feel as though it is just a coincidence.
31:31
Speaker 1: Amy is really worried. Together, they try to work out
31:36
Speaker 1: how Stimpson knew Molly was there.
31:39
Speaker 2: Did you post anywhere that you were going to the gym?
31:42
Speaker 2: Was my first reaction. She'd said that she hadn't put
31:45
Speaker 2: anything on Facebook or Instagram that she was filming stuff
31:48
Speaker 2: at UNI. No one could have known she was there.
31:52
Speaker 1: But suddenly Stimpson leaves. Molly is now completely alone and
31:58
Speaker 1: unsure what to do next.
32:00
Speaker 2: She texts Amy, I'd said to her, you know, maybe
32:03
Speaker 2: you should just leave, Just take yourself out of the situation.
32:11
Speaker 2: She'd phoned her mum and told her mum what was
32:15
Speaker 2: going on, and her mum had given her the same
32:19
Speaker 2: advice as well, which was to leave to go straight home,
32:23
Speaker 2: and he'd been driving around the car park waiting for
32:26
Speaker 2: her to leave.
32:29
Speaker 1: Molly gets her belongings together and text seeing me again.
32:39
Speaker 2: And I had replied to her saying, you know, don't
32:40
Speaker 2: speak to him, just get out. You know something's not right,
32:43
Speaker 2: just leave, She said. I was walking and walking to
32:47
Speaker 2: my car now and I had replied to her saying,
32:50
Speaker 2: you don't worry about him, he's a psycho.
32:54
Speaker 1: As Molly gets to her car, she's unaware that Stimpson
32:58
Speaker 1: is in the car park.
33:01
Speaker 2: She'd read the message and never replied. I assumed that
33:09
Speaker 2: she was driving home.
33:15
Speaker 1: Twenty three year old Molly McLaren is being stalked by
33:18
Speaker 1: her ex boyfriend Joshua Stimpson. He's been harassing her and
33:22
Speaker 1: she's reported him to the police, but terrifyingly, over the
33:27
Speaker 1: last twenty four hours, he's followed her to two separate locations,
33:32
Speaker 1: first a night out with friends and then to the gym,
33:36
Speaker 1: placing his mat right next to her. Molly is so
33:43
Speaker 1: frightened she texts her mum and friend Amy to ask
33:46
Speaker 1: what she should do, and.
33:48
Speaker 2: I'd replied to her saying, don't worry about him. He's
33:51
Speaker 2: a psychi.
33:53
Speaker 1: Stimpson leaves the gym and Molly hopes he's left her alone,
33:58
Speaker 1: but he's lying in wait for her outside.
34:03
Speaker 5: He'd been driving around the car park waiting for her
34:05
Speaker 5: to leave.
34:07
Speaker 1: Just after eleven am, Molly gets to her car and
34:10
Speaker 1: is completely unaware that Stimpson is watching her every move.
34:16
Speaker 2: If she'd been scared, maybe she wouldn't have left alone.
34:19
Speaker 2: Maybe if we told her to stay there and not leave,
34:23
Speaker 2: that he would have got bored and maybe driven away.
34:27
Speaker 1: Before Molly has a chance to leave, Stimpson crosses the
34:31
Speaker 1: car park and jumps into the car. At eleven oh
34:39
Speaker 1: eight am. He viciously attacks Molly McLaren, stabbing her seventy
34:44
Speaker 1: five times.
34:51
Speaker 2: I'd received a message from one of my friends at
34:54
Speaker 2: work to say, you know, have you seen what's happened
34:58
Speaker 2: at Dockside? And I had gone online and I'd had
35:02
Speaker 2: a look and I thought, gosh, that's really really horrific,
35:06
Speaker 2: And never for a second did I think that it
35:09
Speaker 2: was her. And I tried to wring her and I
35:12
Speaker 2: tried to text her and she didn't answer, and that's
35:15
Speaker 2: when I thought, God, I've got a really, really horrible
35:18
Speaker 2: feeling and it just wasn't real.
35:22
Speaker 5: It will never be real.
35:27
Speaker 3: Did the same bit every day I'm lagging. Everyone gets
35:31
Speaker 3: that bit.
35:34
Speaker 1: It's not pretty. I wasn't really thinking.
35:38
Speaker 5: It was just like shock. Yeah.
35:52
Speaker 6: It was just the worst night of my life ever.
35:55
Speaker 6: I don't Yeah, I didn't sleep that night. I just
35:58
Speaker 6: cried all chat. I just could not comprehend any of
36:04
Speaker 6: it at all.
36:07
Speaker 4: It's not something I believed myself for ages, Like every
36:11
Speaker 4: morning I would have pake up for a while after that,
36:13
Speaker 4: I think that's not real.
36:20
Speaker 8: The victim of the attack yesterday at the Dockside shopping
36:23
Speaker 8: center has been named as twenty three year old Kent
36:26
Speaker 8: University students Molly McLaren from Cobbham, near Gravesend. Now Joshua
36:30
Speaker 8: Stimpson from near Rochester has been charged with murder and
36:34
Speaker 8: appeared before magistrates in Midway.
36:40
Speaker 1: Stimpson's trial for the murder of Molly McLaren began on
36:44
Speaker 1: the twenty third of January twenty eighteen at Maidston Crown Court.
36:49
Speaker 1: He makes a police for manslaughter on the grounds of
36:51
Speaker 1: diminished responsibility.
36:55
Speaker 2: It was just a really horrible time because you just
36:59
Speaker 2: think to yourself, how could he possibly possibly walk away
37:03
Speaker 2: with this with manslaughter? I just I just don't know
37:07
Speaker 2: how we're all going to live with that.
37:09
Speaker 1: At the trail, it's revealed Stimpson has a history of
37:12
Speaker 1: stalking other women.
37:16
Speaker 2: So in court it was quite difficult to listen to
37:20
Speaker 2: some of Simpson's previous encounters with women. He was known
37:25
Speaker 2: to the police for threatening behavior. He'd sent messages to
37:31
Speaker 2: one of the girls saying that he would fly to
37:33
Speaker 2: where she was on holiday and drown her. He'd been
37:36
Speaker 2: suspected of slashing her tires outside her house. He'd also
37:41
Speaker 2: had another encounter with a local girl around turning up
37:45
Speaker 2: at her flat unannounced and being in the same nightclubs
37:49
Speaker 2: that she was in and waiting outside for her, and
37:52
Speaker 2: he'd also spat in her face in a nightclub.
37:56
Speaker 1: The Jewelry take less than four hours to return a
37:59
Speaker 1: unanimous verdict. They convict Joshua Stimpson of murder and he's
38:04
Speaker 1: sentenced to life in prison without parole. The judge said
38:09
Speaker 1: during sentencing that Stimpson was a highly dangerous young man
38:12
Speaker 1: who would pose a very considerable risk to women in
38:15
Speaker 1: the future. Five months later, Rochester Cathedral hosts the graduation
38:27
Speaker 1: ceremony for Molly McLaren's university year. The main hall is
38:33
Speaker 1: packed and there are two guests of honor in the audience,
38:37
Speaker 1: Molly's parents.
38:41
Speaker 9: Most Honorable Chancellor. It is a great sadness that I
38:45
Speaker 9: now invite Doug and Joanne McLaren to accept the Award
38:49
Speaker 9: of Undergraduate Diploma in Sports and Exercise for Health, ordered
38:53
Speaker 9: posthumously to Molly McLaren.
39:00
Speaker 7: The certificate speaks to them and it's at that stage
39:05
Speaker 7: after that that everybody gets the nod.
39:07
Speaker 1: And at the.
39:08
Speaker 7: Same point Gavin turned Joe and Doug towards the congregation
39:14
Speaker 7: so they could hear and see the celebration.
39:24
Speaker 4: It was just like I was cheering for her as
39:26
Speaker 4: though she was getting her said Heppabot, because I would
39:29
Speaker 4: have cheered so loudly because I've been so proud of her.
39:33
Speaker 6: The students, the staff, everyone in that cathedral lifted the roof.
39:37
Speaker 6: We were cheering, we were wheeping, and yeah, we were
39:40
Speaker 6: really really remembering Molly.
39:44
Speaker 4: Everyone felt very honored that, you know, Joe and Doug
39:47
Speaker 4: managed to be there. That was incredibly strong of them,
39:51
Speaker 4: and every every parent should feel like they can go
39:55
Speaker 4: to that ceremony because she would have still been there
39:59
Speaker 4: and she.
39:59
Speaker 5: Would have done.
40:09
Speaker 1: Since Molly's death, friends and family have set up a
40:12
Speaker 1: charity for people suffering with eating disorders called the Molly
40:17
Speaker 1: McLaren Foundation.
40:20
Speaker 2: There's one thing I've learned from her relationship and their
40:25
Speaker 2: situation is that there are red flags as you go along,
40:28
Speaker 2: but unless you really sit and evaluate them as a whole,
40:31
Speaker 2: they don't look like red flags.
40:33
Speaker 5: And that's probably one of the most upsetting things.
40:37
Speaker 1: The rise of social media and the Internet has meant
40:40
Speaker 1: that stalkers have found a new way to track and
40:42
Speaker 1: target their prey.
40:46
Speaker 6: I don't think there's enough awareness about it at all,
40:49
Speaker 6: because before this happened to Molly. Quite honestly, I was
40:54
Speaker 6: completely unaware of it. Maybe someone may bring it up
40:57
Speaker 6: in a conversation, but I wouldn't draw any attention to
40:59
Speaker 6: it at all. You never think it would happen to you,
41:02
Speaker 6: or it's never happened to me. I don't really understand it.
41:05
Speaker 6: Who would do anything like that?
41:08
Speaker 2: I think in the modern day, it's still very new.
41:11
Speaker 2: It's not something that people have had a chance to
41:14
Speaker 2: really look into, and it's more scary than anything. Many
41:21
Speaker 2: people that post where they are when they're there, the
41:24
Speaker 2: introduction of live videos snapchat, being in the moment, you
41:28
Speaker 2: don't necessarily know who's watching. And yes, you can control
41:31
Speaker 2: your friend's list, and you can control who is viewing
41:35
Speaker 2: your things on Instagram, but do you really know those people.
41:42
Speaker 6: It has really impacted me with dating. I'm sure there
41:46
Speaker 6: will be a time where I will meet someone and
41:48
Speaker 6: I will be okay and maybe have a nice relationship,
41:51
Speaker 6: but at the moment, I'm just always on edge when
41:54
Speaker 6: I'm doing things like that, especially when someone contacts me
41:58
Speaker 6: on social media.
42:02
Speaker 1: Molly and her friends unwittingly fell into the world of
42:05
Speaker 1: a psychotic stalker, partly because of their generation's dependence on
42:09
Speaker 1: online life.
42:11
Speaker 4: A lot of this cyber stalking can lead to things like,
42:14
Speaker 4: you know, death and serious injuries, and I don't know
42:19
Speaker 4: what's more serious than that, honest.
42:24
Speaker 1: In the UK, at least two women a week are
42:28
Speaker 1: murdered at the hands of partners or ex partners. Stalking
42:33
Speaker 1: related behavior is identified in ninety four percent of these cases.
42:42
Speaker 1: The tight knit community of Cobham are standing strong. Every year,
42:47
Speaker 1: they celebrate Molly's birthday by hosting a charity festival called
42:51
Speaker 1: Molly Fest.
42:53
Speaker 2: Her story resonated with so many people. She was so young,
42:58
Speaker 2: and everyone has a best friend, ever has a daughter,
43:01
Speaker 2: everyone has, you know, a cousin, and it was really
43:06
Speaker 2: important for us to have her remembered for who she
43:11
Speaker 2: was and what she stood for, and not what happened
43:14
Speaker 2: to her.
43:16
Speaker 6: Some days it's easier than others, and I do share
43:20
Speaker 6: the tea in most days, but I talk to Molly
43:23
Speaker 6: every day and I love watching videos of Molly.
43:30
Speaker 1: Right, we just all you know, how to.
43:38
Speaker 5: Believe what had happened
43:41
Speaker 4: And just move on from it and do the best
43:43
Speaker 4: that you can and pick every day as it comes.