Podcast Corner: A scary tale of stalking and police inaction 

Hannah Mossman Moore has teamed up with her stepmother, acclaimed journalist Carole Cadwalladr, to explain how a chance work encounter lead to a years-long nightmare 

Carole Cadwalladr narrates a podcast about the stalking of her stepdaughter.  Picture: Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/Getty.

We last heard from the journalist Carole Cadwalladr in the 10-part series Sergei & The Westminster Spy Ring, about an “alleged secret spy ring operating at the very heart of the British political system”, earlier this year. Having concluded at the start of March, she has since narrated a new show for BBC Sounds, the 10-part series Stalked.

Cadwalladr is the ‘ex-step mum’ of her co-host Hannah Mossman Moore, who is in her mid-20s in 2015 and working at London Fashion Week, networking around the room to make contact with international buyers. She sees a friend - “the male equivalent of an IT girl” - who was there with someone she didn’t recognise.

In his late 40s, early 50s, this man is dressed well and talks up his connections. At this stage, with previous series like Sweet Bobby and Can I Tell You a Secret? echoing in our ears, the listener’s alarm bells might well be ringing. A series of emails follow, the man even inviting Mossman Moore to a hair salon.

He asks for a selfie which she sends, to which he replies, “Who needs sleep when you look this beautiful?” The man  believed in her, she says, and wanted to be her mentor.

Hannah Mossman Moore.

As their relationship grows over the following years, his phone is allegedly hacked and Mossman Moore is inundated with a series of messages from his supposed girlfriend and others. 

The soundscape is superb, the swell of voices almost cacophonous in the listener’s ears as worrying emails and contacts start piling up for Mossman Moore, and people claim they have taken control of her online reputation. She says they took her 20s from her.

It’s a familiar pattern - the police are called, they do an investigation, but the case is closed amid little evidence. “The hope that I felt was what was keeping me going, and then you hear that the case is closed and that hope comes crashing down,” says Hannah. 

The horror doesn’t end anytime soon - by episode five, Cadwalladr and Hannah are asking if the latter is being surveilled. Episode eight, Alice, is a standalone episode as Mossman Moore meets with the parents of a former schoolmate who was subjected to stalking by her ex-boyfriend. 

It’s a horrifying 36 minutes, as Alice, almost apologetically, calls the police to report the man’s increasingly worrying behaviour and harassment. The ‘what-ifs’ linger as a 45-second 999 call confirms the worst. The man, a soldier, murdered Alice.

Stalked’s first episode was released at the beginning of February, and as Mossman Moore’s story has been told, the latter episodes of the series deal with the fallout and seek to tie up loose ends. The final episode of Stalked, one of the most powerful series this year, is released on Tuesday, April 15.