July 16, 2026 • 41 mins
In the aftermath of a painful divorce, Hazel finds comfort in an unexpected connection. But as their relationship deepens, strange coincidences start to pile up.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, everyone, we have some exciting news to share. ABC
News Studios has turned Caroline Brega's story from Betrayal Season
four into a docuseries. You'll get to meet the people involved,
You'll hear from people who have never spoken before, and
you get to see where this story took place. We
are so proud and excited to share it with you all.
Stream Betrayal Dirty Secrets now on Hulu or Hulu for
(00:22):
Disney Plus.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
You've got to arrest him because I don't know where
this is going to end. He's a liar, he's a manipulator,
and he's an abusa and I don't think he'll stop
unless he's made to stop.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about
the people we trust the most and the decep that
change everything. Today we're sharing Hazel's story. She feels more
comfortable telling her story with a pseudonym, but the rest
of the names and details in this story are unchanged.
(01:14):
Hazel lives in a small town in the UK.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
It's a village with two shops and there's not really
a lot there to be honest.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Hazel married her husband, Mikey, when she was eighteen. In
her early twenties, she started studying to be a social worker.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I started college and working a lot, so I wasn't
really home and I think Mikey's reaction to that was
he was at home board so it'd have a drink.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Mikey's drinking turned from a habit to an addiction.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
It was awful. It was awful. He couldn't keep a
job because obviously being alcohol dependent, so that put more
pressure on me, having to pay the bills, make sure
that you've got enough money.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Hazel was working hard to build a full life. She
had big dreams, but over time it became clear that
Mikey couldn't grow with her.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I wanted to better myself and get a better career
and do something meaningful, and he was kind of stuck.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Mikey's struggle with addiction changed him. He began lashing out
at Hazel. He'd tell her that he wasn't drinking, but
she started to see that he was just hiding it.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
When I'd come down in the morning, he'd have made
me a coffee and he'd have one himself, and the
would be vodka in his coffee. My anxiety was through
the roof. It was just horrendous.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Hazel realized she couldn't trust him anymore.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
We tried to save our marriage, but it just got worse.
Over the next couple of years, things weren't good.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Eventually, it was clear that Mikey needed professional support and
Hazel needed a supportive part, and neither of them could
be that for each other.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
It just got out of control.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
She and Mikey decided to divorce. The day he left,
Hazel helped him pack up his things. Finally, she grabbed
the last box and put it in his car. When
she opened the trunk, it.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Was filled with empty bottles of vodka whiskey.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Then Mikey drove away. That's how Hazel found herself living
alone for the first time as an adult, well almost alone.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I had a dog called Rico. He was my little
rescue dog. He rescued me as much as I rescued him.
I call him my soul dog.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
She was learning how to do a lot of things
on her own. Just a few days after Mikey moved out,
Hazel went to take a shower and discovered the water
was freezing cold.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I had no hot water, so I had to ring
this company back and say you've knackered up my hot water.
I didn't have any hot water, so they said, we'll
send somebody out the next day.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Sure enough, the next morning, she heard a knock on
her door. It was a repair man from the gas company.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
He was very tall, but didn't think anything of him,
just a guess man.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
He got to work on the hot water heater. He
has all went back to the living room, where she
was hanging out with her best friend.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
We'd known each other since playgroup, you know, really really close,
so she of course was the person I rang when
I'd realized that, yeah, that's it, marriage is over. I
was on the floor. I was at my most vulnerable,
one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
It was a relief to have her best friend there
to listen.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
I was talking about Mikey and his alcohol dependency and
the lies, and just that I couldn't do it anymore.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Eventually, the repairman finished fixing the boiler. He popped his
head into the living room, told all he was done,
and left.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
So my hot water was fixed. My friend had left.
Didn't really fancy being in the house on my own,
so I went over to my mom's, just trying to
keep myself busy.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
She was at her Mom's sitting on the couch doing
the same thing she'd been doing for days.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I sat thinking about, you know, the end of my marriage.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Then her phone buzzed.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I got a text message from a number that I
didn't know. Said, it's Mark, the gas engineer. Can I
just ask? Did I leave my laptop case at your house?
I told him what, I'd have a look, and when
I got home there was no laptop case. So I
messaged him and said, oh, you know, it's not here.
Maybe you left another job.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Then he texted an emoji.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
He put one of those kiss face emojis, the little
moojis with a little blowing out heart, and then he
apologized for sending the emoji, said it was an accident,
and I said it was okay. I didn't mind. And
then he sent another.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
One that made her laugh.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Seeing that little emoji made me feel a little bit like, Okay,
we just started texting. We just started talking, just general things.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Mark's texts were a welcomed distraction.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
I didn't have to think about my marriage ending. I
didn't have to think about all the stresses that brought on.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
They started flirting and bantering over text.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
And it made me feel good. It made me feel,
Oh my god, you know somebody could actually care about me.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
They started talking on the phone sometimes too. After a
couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
He messaged and said, oh, I've got a job around
the corner, come on pop in for a coffee, and
I was like, my gosh, yeah, sure, come over.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Ten minutes later, she heard a knock on her door.
When she opened it, Mark was standing in front of her, smiling.
They'd been flirting for weeks, and now in person she
clearly felt the chemistry.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
The first thing he did was put me up against
the wall and kissed me, which of course blew me
off my feet, like, oh my gosh, I've never had
that before.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
He's all was nervous that hanging out in person might
turn out to be an awkward endeavor, but to her surprise,
we got on.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
We laughed and it was nice. There was no awkward silences.
If there was a silence, it was comfortable.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
After that day, they started hanging out more often.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
He would come and see me whilst I was working nights,
whilst I was studying. He was making me laugh.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
She had spent years in her marriage taking care of
her ex husband. Mark was a breath of fresh air.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
It was different with Mark. It was so much affection.
We said it was a passion night neither one of
us had felt before.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Mark made her feel sexy and wanted. Before long, they
started dating officially. When Mark got off work, he would
go to Hazel's place and they would spend their evenings together.
Mark made even mundane things feel exciting.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Mark was stupid funny. He would make a twat out
of himself and you would just be laughing at him
rather than with him. He'd start doing really sinny dances
around the house. If a song came on, he'd start
stripping his clothes off, and I'm just sat there like,
what are you doing? But it was really funny and
we just got on. It just felt so natural, and
(08:41):
that laughter got me through.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Mark texted Hazel all the time. He didn't hide his
feelings for her.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
He would draw hearts on his phone and tell me
how beautiful I was. He would send a message and
he would say ill and then dash dash dash you,
And I was like, well, is that like or is
that love? Obviously it was love.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
When he wasn't around, she missed him.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
There was passion there that I'd never felt before, and
it felt really nice. It felt wonderful.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
She finally found someone that could meet her halfway.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
He had a stable job with a big company. The
pension was really good, and obviously I was training to
be a social worker.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
As time went on, Hazel started imagining what life with
Mark could look like.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I thought that this is great. Neither ofs have got children.
We could have two good incomes. He's got a stable job,
He's funny, he makes me laugh, he makes me feel
good about myself. There's a future here.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Hazel's friends were worried about how fast their relationship was moving.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
One of my friends, Vicki, said it's too quick. It's
too fast. She said it would be headline in the newspapers.
Meagered by the guests man, you know, jokingly, but Hazel
wasn't amused. Come on, sometimes things happen like this. You know.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
It was a big extreme. But her friend was suspicious,
and she had a good reason to be worried. A
(10:50):
few days after Hazel's husband moved out, she called the
gas company to fix her hot water. That led to
a meet cute with a man named Mark. After weeks
flirting over text, their relationship developed into something real. They
began hanging out whenever they could find time.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
I thought that this is great. He's got a stable job,
he's funny, he makes me laugh, he makes me feel
good about myself. There's a future here.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
The only complication was that he lived thirty minutes away,
but luckily he was often in her town for work.
They would make a date of it.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I would cook for him, he would come over. He
made me feel good about myself, telling me how beautiful
I was and how wonderful I was, and how we
were perfect for each other.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
At the time, he is always still in school training
to be a social worker. Her schedule was packed. It
helped that Mark was always willing to make the drive
to her place.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
I was so busy, I was studying, working, so it
just worked. It just fitted.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
But Mark had to work early mornings, so he rarely
spent the night.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
There was one day, for some reason, I think I
needed to go and get something from the shop. So
it was about half six so I was drive into
the shop and I saw Mark walking his dog in
my area.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
This was weird. Why would Mark be walking his dog
so far from his own house?
Speaker 2 (12:21):
And I stopped the car and I was like, what
are you doing around here? And he said, oh, oh,
my uncle lives around the corner, so sometimes I'll bring
the dog over and walk the dog around here. It's
got a really nice dog walking field of that. Okay,
a bit weird, but all right.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
He'd never mentioned he had family in her area, but
that made things even more convenient. A few days later,
Mark came over to Hazel's house. She went outside and
greeted him as he got out of his truck. As
she hugged him, her eyes landed on the front seat.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I saw an Amazon parcel with an address on it
two roads from where I live.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Mark lived a half hour away. Why would he have
a package addressed to a home in her neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I thought maybe he'd just got it delivered to his
uncle's house. Maybe that was easier for him. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
She made a mental note of the address. Hazel and
Mark had been dating for months. They'd become a part
of each other's daily lives. Many nights after work they'd
walk her dog Reco together. Mark loved Rico as much
as she did, and when they weren't together, they texted
and called each other constantly.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Talking on the phone all the time. Texting all the time.
If we ran out of things to say, we would
just send hearts to each other. Then we'd play games
and things on Snapchat if she's easy.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
For the first time in a long time, Hazel felt
settled in her life. She decided to buy the house
she'd been renting for the past few years, and she
started to consider asking Mark to take a big step
with her.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
I thought about him moving in here, living together, having
a stable relationship, which I hadn't had in such a
long time.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
One day, Hazel went on a hike with one of
her friends.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
We went to a place. It's called Simmons Yat and
it's a big lake, big forest, and we walked around
the woods. Such a beautiful place.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
After a few hours of hiking and catching up, they
headed home. On their drive back, she spotted what looked
like Mark's work van.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
He was parked on the side of the road.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Hazel did a double take. What was Mark doing out here?
Maybe it wasn't him, But as they drove closer, she
was sure it was Mark, and he was out of his.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Van and he was looking in his van, and we
just prod on driving.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Over the next few weeks, Hazel started seeing Mark's work
fan more and more. When she asked him about it,
he said he had a lot of repairs in the area,
but how many boilers could be broken on her street.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I felt really uneasy after he said that, but I thought, no,
it's fine, it's fine.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
One weekend, Mark told Hazel he was going on a trip.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
He was going to his friend's house that was in
the middle of nowhere, and he was spending all weekend
there and he was repiping the whole house, so he
wasn't able to talk to me. So I was like,
that's fine, that's no problem.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
She knew he couldn't talk while he was at his
friend's house, but she figured his drive there would be
a great time to catch.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Up, so I was like, I'll ring him on the way.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
She called Mark. Usually he picked up right away, but
this time it went to voicemail.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
He didn't answer, so I thought, Okay, something's not right.
He always answers the phone. The phone has rung, so
he's got signal.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Hazel had a bad feeling. She got back to the
Amazon package on his front seat. It was addressed to
a street just around the corner, so I thought.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Right, I'm going to get in my car and then
to drive down that road.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
She drove down the road, scanning each driveway nervously. She
wasn't sure what she was looking for or if she'd
find anything. After a few minutes, she saw something that
made her hit the brakes.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I saw his van parked on the drive.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
She drove closer, and sure enough, it was his license plate.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
We're talking two minutes two minute drive from my house.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
He said he was with a friend far away in
the countryside with no phone service, but his car was
parked right down the street from her. She texted Mark
and told him she saw his van parked in the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
He then went into kind of panic mode. He told
me that he'd gone up the road to find some
signal to ring me.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Mark insisted that he was visiting his friend, that he
was miles away.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
He's like, I'll send you my location.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
He sent her a screenshot of a map.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
He'd gone on to Google Maps and he'd sent me
a screenshot, and it was a little dot in the
middle of nowhere.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
For a second, it did look like Mark was in
the countryside, a small dot surrounded by big green fields.
But as Hazel looked closer, at the screenshot, she noticed
something was off.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
He'd cropped out the time and the date. I said,
I'm not stupid. I know you're not there right now.
If you were there right now, you wouldn't have cropped
out at the time. He carried on making up more nices,
telling me I'm being paranoid. Everything was in my head.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
But Hazel was staring straight at his van. She was
certain this was real. Whenever Mark came to Hazel's he
parked on the street. But here, at this house, he
was parked in the driveway. Did Mark live here? It
all felt suspicious, and he was clearly.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Lying to her, this is it. I can't be in
another relationship where there's this honesty. Once the trust is gone,
the trust is gone, you can't get it back. I said,
I'm done. I'm done. It's over. I can't do this anymore.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
As soon as she said that, Mark's tone shifted. He
responded right away and began telling Hazel that this was
all her fault.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
It's all because of my ex husband. Why I'm so broken.
I don't deserve him, really, just the horrible, horrible messages.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
No matter what he said to her, Hazel knew what
she'd seen he was lying, and she'd caught him in
the act. That's when Mark stopped pretending. He admitted that
he lived in that house just two minutes away from her.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Ob Jove passed his size every day.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
At this point, Mark knew all his lives were unraveling,
so he admitted the full truth.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
He then told me about his girlfriend and his daughter.
I was in a state of shock.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Lying about where he lived was one thing, but this
was so much darker than that. Mark was lying about
his entire light.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
He lives in the same area as me, and he's
been lying from day one. Hazel was disgusted, but then
reflecting on it, it all makes sense. Never spent the night,
you know. I thought it was because it fitted in
with me, and it fitted in with.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
My work really well.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
But clear made sense, And Wyna, did I not clock
on to Yeah, there's probably somebody else.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Mark was grasping extras trying to get her back. He
told her he would leave his family for her.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
And when she said she didn't want that, trying to
blame me. Maybe think it was all in my head,
you know, real gaslighting, horrible behavior.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Mark was being cruel in a way. She had never
experienced before.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
And I was like, I'm done, get stuff, get out
my house. I don't want you anyone near me.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
At the time, Hazel was working at a women's center
where she was training to be a social worker.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Which was the perfect place for me to be going
through all this because I had on hands support and
they advised me to not block people. Don't block people
like that because if they don't have a channel of communication,
that's when they start turning up, and then obviously you
were at bigger risk. So I didn't block him.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Mark was messaging her incessantly, biding her, trying everything to
get her attention.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
It was horrendous. It brought back so many feelings that
I'd kind of buried from my relationship with my husband.
I felt all the anxiety was coming back, mistrust, I
felt sick, I couldn't eat, I lost so much weight.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Mark was getting increasingly agitated and desperate. Then she got
an alarming message from him.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Saying that he'd had a heart attack and was in
hospital and he'd almost died, and I thought, oh my god,
have I done this? I felt awful. I messaged him
back and said, you know you're going to be okay.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
You're in the right place, Mark responded right away. He
told her that he was about to go in for
heart surgery.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
He was texting me from his hospital bed, saying that
he was being pushed towards theater and that he could
see the lights above his head because he was led flat.
That's all he was trying to focus on.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Hazel's concern melted away and was replaced by skepticism.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I've had enough operations in my life to know you
don't take your phone to an operating data All your
belongings get bagged up and they get put safely away somewhere.
So I was like, come on, at this point, I'm
just like, this is bullshit. This isn't true.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
When Hazel ignored Mark's texts, she started getting harassing, coercive
messages from unknown numbers.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I then got messages on Facebook signal and I messages
pleading apologizing.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
When she first met Mark, she thought he was her
ticket get out of a dark period of her life,
but now he was pulling her further and deeper into
despair and isolation.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
I was managing to eat crackers and drink water. That
was all I could kind of keep down is the
time and that just kind of escalated, and you know,
I was already kind of burning out with what I
was doing, but then not being able to eat and
keep food down, I was just burning out even more.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
She decided to get on a dating app.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
I think I was just looking for somebody to make
me feel better because I couldn't make myself feel better.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
She matched with a few guys and started messaging one
of them more regularly. Eventually they moved their conversation off
the app and on to Facebook Messenger.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
But then I started getting messages from Mark about the
things that I was saying with this guy. My private
message is to this guy. He knew the bloat's name,
he knew what the context we were talking about. He
said that we were talking about awful things.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Hazel was scared.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
How do you know that I haven't spoken to you?
And he's like, the guy's messaged me and told me
and sent me screenshots.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
But this guy didn't even know that Mark existed. That's
when it dawned on Hazel.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
You've hacked into my Facebook.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
She changed her Facebook password, but that was only a
temporary solution. She was getting calls and texts from unknown
numbers at all hours of the day.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
The messages carried on, and then it got kind of
really nasty, so he started calling me a whore, started
calling me a slut for moving on so quickly.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Mark's behavior was escalating. Hazel decided to reach out for support.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
I ran one oh one, which is our non emergency
police line, but they said they've gotten a way of
tracking him, trying my network provider. My network provider did
offer for me have block numbers stopped, but actually, sometimes
important people wing on block numbers, the police ring on
block numbers, the doctors do so actually that would be
(25:11):
impacting my life more.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
So, Hazel was left to deal with Mark on her own.
Knowing that he lived in her neighborhood was terrifying. She
was scared he was hiding around every corner.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
I couldn't drive past his house, so I was doing
a detour. Every time I saw one of those vans,
I'd get panic attacks.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
She remembered how often she ran into him when they
were dating. Now she wondered, had that really been a coincidence.
She checked to find my friends on her phone and
saw that market access to her location, but she'd never
given it to him.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
He must have got my phone at some point while
we were together and set my location so he could
see it.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
He was tracking her, and maybe he'd been tracking her
since the very beginning. She didn't know what else he knew,
or what other ways he might be watching her.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
I didn't feel safe. It was horrible, it was invasive.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
She lived in a state of paranoia for months.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
One morning, I'd come downstairs and we've got candles. They're
called Imperial candles, and they smell absolutely beautiful, and they've
got jewelry inside. So I'd gone downstairs and the candle
had burnt down enough that I could get the jewey out.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
He's all stood by the breakfast bar fishing out the
jewelry from the candle.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
So I was stood there for quite a while because
they're quite hard to get out.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Then she heard something.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
I heard noise.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
She looked up slowly in the corner of her living room.
She kept a pet camera.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
I always had the camera pointing at the front door
because that was where Rico would always owl.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
But now the camera was turning slowly looking around the room.
Somebody was controlling it remotely. When it was pointing directly
at her, the camera stopped and.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I just froze, I think he's in my camera.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
After Hazel broke up with Mark, he began harassing her.
It started with incessant text messages and calls, then he
hacked into her Facebook account, and then one morning, Hazel
was in her living room when she heard her pet
camera move. Someone was controlling it remotely. When it was
pointing directly at her, the camera stopped and I just
(28:07):
stood and I just froze.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
She grabbed her phone and logged into the pet camera app.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
And it said two viewers, so me and somebody else.
Now I didn't live with anyone else, never given the
access to anybody. No one else should have had any
access to the camera.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
This had to be Mark. And with the camera pointed
straight at her, she knew he was watching her. That
very moment.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
I thought, okay, just trying a normal I picked up
my keys, I picked up my phone, and I just
left the house.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
He's always rattled.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
What's going to happen next? I don't know what to do.
If I hut off my camera, is he going to
start turning up?
Speaker 1 (28:56):
She ran through options in her mind.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I deleted all of his message years. At one point
because I didn't want to read the mcgannal, didn't want
to relive it. So I thought, okay, if I ring
the police, I've got no evidence, so it's my word
against his.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Eventually she decided to confront Mark directly.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
I messaged him and I said, I know you've been
on my camera. I know you've been watching me.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Enter her surprise, they admitted it.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
He said that it was because he missed me so
much and it didn't know how else for me to
be part of his life.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
His words were alarming, but he's all gained something valuable.
I had evidence he'd admitted in writing what he'd done
and why he did it. He's all reported him to
the police.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
The police came out to see me the next day,
took a full statement, asked me what I wanted to do,
and they gave me three options. They said they can
have a word with him and tell him to stop.
They can, or they can just record it in case
something else happens, and then they've got a bigger picture.
And I sat there and I just thought, if something
(30:11):
else happens.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Her mind went to dark places. What did they mean
if something else happens?
Speaker 2 (30:19):
And that kind of sat with me, and I thought
it's escalated to the point already, which is horrendous. Didn't
feel safe in my own home.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
So she told the police she'd made her decision.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
You've got to arrest him because I don't know where
this is going to end. He's a liar, he's a manipulator,
and he's an abuser, and I don't think he'll stop
unless he's made to still.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
A few days later, Mark was arrested.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
He'd been arrested on suspicion of stalking and arrestment.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
He still knew he was still employed by the gas company.
She called them and explained that Mark was a liar
ability to their customer's safety.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
I was just trying to get my point across and
say that this man is dangerous and you've got him
going into people's homes and you need to get him out.
They said it was the wireless heating system company's problem.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
So Hazel called them, and then.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
They said it's the gas company's problem. So I was
just getting bound from the two companies and I was
on the phone for als.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
This pathway wasn't working. Nobody she spoke to and knew
how to help with Mark's trial coming up, Hazel decided
she wanted her story to serve a broader purpose. She
wanted to spread awareness about stalking and perpetrators like Mark.
Before Mark's trial, Hazel reached out to her local newspaper.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
To make sure there was a reporter there because I
thought this isn't going under the carpet.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
On the day of Mark's trial, Hazel went to court.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
I felt that I needed to be there to show
him that he hadn't broken me. I had probably about
seven or eight friends with me that had come to
be there and to support me. I read my victim
impact statement, and my hands they were really really shaking.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
There was overwhelming evidence of Marx's harassment and stalking, including
his own confession to Hazel.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
He played guilty. He got an eighteen week prison sentence
suspended for twelve months. He got an indefinite restraining order
preventing any contact with myself, and he's not allowed in
my road.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Two days later, the local newspaper reported on Hazel's story
and Mark's crimes. Over the coming weeks and months, the
story spread to other outlets across the UK.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
I had paper writing to me and magazine's writing to me.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
We've had voice actors read some of the headlines. We've
anatomized the name of Mark's former employer, gas engineer who
hacked into excess pet camera to spy on her avoids jail.
This is what it's like to be stocked in your
own hall. Gloucestershire woman's full account of how ex gas
engineer hacked into her cameras after fixing her boiler. Gas
(33:24):
engineer stocked ex girlfriend by hacking pet camera inside her home.
Telling her story was challenging at first, but she has
continued to tell it because she knows how important it
is to put language to her experience.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
I didn't think of harassment and stalking. I just saw
it as he's got a screw loose and he just
needs to leave me alone. It wasn't until the police
said stalking and harassment that I really started to reflect
on what I had gone through and how serious it was.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
When Mark showed up at her house to fix her boiler,
Hazel was at her most vulnerable when she was talking
with her friend about her divorce. Mark was in the
next room.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
He was listening to everything. He told me that later
on he was listening to the fact that I was crying.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
He heard her desperation, and just hours later he swooped
in and started flirting with her. Mark saw Hazel was lost.
Because of that, she'd make the perfect target. One night,
Hazel got a call from an unknown number and I.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Was like, oh my god, the restraining order hasn't worked.
None of this has worked. He thinks he can message
me again and ring me.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Nervously, she picked up the phone. She braced herself to
hear Mark's voice. Instead, it was the CEO of the
gas company.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
And he said he'd read the article. He terminated Mark's
contract with immediate effect. He already had people going to
his house to collect the van, collect all the equipment,
and he was very sympathetic as to what happened.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
The gas company connected her with mental health services.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
They gave me counseling through their counseling service, which helped
me a lot use CBT, which really did change my
view on him. He wasn't scary anymore. He was just
this little pathetic man that it's just not worth my time,
my thought, my energy.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Even though it had taken a stocking conviction, it was
meaningful that the company reached out to support her.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
I received an apology and lots of reassurance, and they
actually use that case now in training moving forward, so
that's really positive. I think if something like that happened
again that maybe it would be dealt with differently.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Hazel suspects that Mark's girlfriend found out that he was
cheating on her. After Hazel broke up with him, she
learned that his girlfriend had also kicked him out of
the house. But more recently, Hazel saw Mark and his
girlfriend together in their driveway. That means Mark is still
two roads away.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
So I drive past his house mose days, but I
do it with my head held high. He didn't win.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Hazel has a permanent restraining order against Mark. He's not
allowed on her road, but that only offers so much protection.
It was scary knowing that Mark lived around the corner.
For a while, Hazel thought about moving, but in the
end she decided to stay. It didn't seem right that
she should be the one forced out of their neighborhood.
(36:56):
For Hazel, staying in her home symbolizes.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Didn't win this. He didn't break me.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
She didn't want Mark to be the reason she loved
a place she loves deeply. She wanted to rebuild and
make her home somewhere she felt comfortable again, so she
decided to renovate.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
I completely ripped out everything and started again. I kind
of took back the safety of my house and made
it so different that if he walked in air and
now I would recognize it.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
She refuses to uproot her life because of what Mark did. Instead,
she's leaned into her community and shifted her mindset.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
It's made me stronger. I will not take any shit.
I won't I will not put up with anything. I
will not be told I can't do something or be
spoken about disrespectfully by anybody.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Knowing the realities of stalking and harassment firsthand has informed
her career.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
It's made me a better social worker in cases like this.
I will share some of my story with some families.
We'll sit and we'll talk about red flags.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
We asked Hazel to share the signs she encourages people
to look out for.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
The massive one is love bombing. If somebody is in
love with you after a couple of days, run for
the hills. Like run for the hills, you can't be
in love with somebody after a couple of days.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
We had every weekly episode with the same question, why
do you want to share your story.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
What happened to me? I lighted the gaps in how
people are protected. There's professionals that are coming into your home.
You would expect them to be safe. You would expect
them to have checks done on them, to know that
they are safe to be entered in people's homes. This
(39:02):
isn't just my story. It's about awareness, accountability and reminds
in people to put their safety first.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly, my sister starts
receiving these text messages from an unknown number. Who else
is getting these messages? Why did it start with us?
(39:38):
If you'd like to share your story on Betrayal, please
email Betrayalpod at gmail dot com. That is Betrayalpod at
gmail dot com. Please note that we are not a
mental health organization. If you are in crisis or currently
experiencing domestic violence, we encourage you to seek local help
(40:00):
dial nine to one one. Please contact organizations that offer
immediate support and our show notes, we've included a list
of US based resources. You can follow us on Instagram
at Betrayal Pod or find me at It's Andrea Gunning
to access our newsletter and additional content and to connect
with the Betrayal community, join our substack at Betrayal dot
(40:23):
substack dot com. We're grateful for your support. One way
to show support is by subscribing to our show on
Apple Podcasts. Don't forget to rate and review Betrayal five
star reviews go a long way. Big thank you to
all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts,
a division of Glass Entertainment Group and partnership with iHeart Podcasts.
(40:47):
The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason,
hosted and produced by me Andrea Gunning, written and produced
by Olivia Hewitt. Our story editor is Monique Leboord, also
produced by Benfai Betterman. Our associate producer is Leah Jablow.
Production management by Kristin Melcuriy, booking support by Curry Richmond.
(41:08):
Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Tresica Crincheck. Audio
editing by Tanner Robbins with additional editing and mixing by
Matt Albecchio. Betrayals theme composed by Oliver Bains. Music library
provided by my Music and For more podcasts from iHeart,
visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get
(41:29):
your podcasts,
Hi, everyone, we have some exciting news to share. ABC
News Studios has turned Caroline Brega's story from Betrayal Season
four into a docuseries. You'll get to meet the people involved,
You'll hear from people who have never spoken before, and
you get to see where this story took place. We
are so proud and excited to share it with you all.
Stream Betrayal Dirty Secrets now on Hulu or Hulu for
(00:22):
Disney Plus.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
You've got to arrest him because I don't know where
this is going to end. He's a liar, he's a manipulator,
and he's an abusa and I don't think he'll stop
unless he's made to stop.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about
the people we trust the most and the decep that
change everything. Today we're sharing Hazel's story. She feels more
comfortable telling her story with a pseudonym, but the rest
of the names and details in this story are unchanged.
(01:14):
Hazel lives in a small town in the UK.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
It's a village with two shops and there's not really
a lot there to be honest.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Hazel married her husband, Mikey, when she was eighteen. In
her early twenties, she started studying to be a social worker.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I started college and working a lot, so I wasn't
really home and I think Mikey's reaction to that was
he was at home board so it'd have a drink.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Mikey's drinking turned from a habit to an addiction.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
It was awful. It was awful. He couldn't keep a
job because obviously being alcohol dependent, so that put more
pressure on me, having to pay the bills, make sure
that you've got enough money.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Hazel was working hard to build a full life. She
had big dreams, but over time it became clear that
Mikey couldn't grow with her.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I wanted to better myself and get a better career
and do something meaningful, and he was kind of stuck.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Mikey's struggle with addiction changed him. He began lashing out
at Hazel. He'd tell her that he wasn't drinking, but
she started to see that he was just hiding it.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
When I'd come down in the morning, he'd have made
me a coffee and he'd have one himself, and the
would be vodka in his coffee. My anxiety was through
the roof. It was just horrendous.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Hazel realized she couldn't trust him anymore.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
We tried to save our marriage, but it just got worse.
Over the next couple of years, things weren't good.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Eventually, it was clear that Mikey needed professional support and
Hazel needed a supportive part, and neither of them could
be that for each other.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
It just got out of control.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
She and Mikey decided to divorce. The day he left,
Hazel helped him pack up his things. Finally, she grabbed
the last box and put it in his car. When
she opened the trunk, it.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Was filled with empty bottles of vodka whiskey.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Then Mikey drove away. That's how Hazel found herself living
alone for the first time as an adult, well almost alone.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I had a dog called Rico. He was my little
rescue dog. He rescued me as much as I rescued him.
I call him my soul dog.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
She was learning how to do a lot of things
on her own. Just a few days after Mikey moved out,
Hazel went to take a shower and discovered the water
was freezing cold.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I had no hot water, so I had to ring
this company back and say you've knackered up my hot water.
I didn't have any hot water, so they said, we'll
send somebody out the next day.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Sure enough, the next morning, she heard a knock on
her door. It was a repair man from the gas company.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
He was very tall, but didn't think anything of him,
just a guess man.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
He got to work on the hot water heater. He
has all went back to the living room, where she
was hanging out with her best friend.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
We'd known each other since playgroup, you know, really really close,
so she of course was the person I rang when
I'd realized that, yeah, that's it, marriage is over. I
was on the floor. I was at my most vulnerable,
one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
It was a relief to have her best friend there
to listen.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
I was talking about Mikey and his alcohol dependency and
the lies, and just that I couldn't do it anymore.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Eventually, the repairman finished fixing the boiler. He popped his
head into the living room, told all he was done,
and left.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
So my hot water was fixed. My friend had left.
Didn't really fancy being in the house on my own,
so I went over to my mom's, just trying to
keep myself busy.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
She was at her Mom's sitting on the couch doing
the same thing she'd been doing for days.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I sat thinking about, you know, the end of my marriage.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Then her phone buzzed.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I got a text message from a number that I
didn't know. Said, it's Mark, the gas engineer. Can I
just ask? Did I leave my laptop case at your house?
I told him what, I'd have a look, and when
I got home there was no laptop case. So I
messaged him and said, oh, you know, it's not here.
Maybe you left another job.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Then he texted an emoji.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
He put one of those kiss face emojis, the little
moojis with a little blowing out heart, and then he
apologized for sending the emoji, said it was an accident,
and I said it was okay. I didn't mind. And
then he sent another.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
One that made her laugh.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Seeing that little emoji made me feel a little bit like, Okay,
we just started texting. We just started talking, just general things.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Mark's texts were a welcomed distraction.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
I didn't have to think about my marriage ending. I
didn't have to think about all the stresses that brought on.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
They started flirting and bantering over text.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
And it made me feel good. It made me feel,
Oh my god, you know somebody could actually care about me.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
They started talking on the phone sometimes too. After a
couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
He messaged and said, oh, I've got a job around
the corner, come on pop in for a coffee, and
I was like, my gosh, yeah, sure, come over.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Ten minutes later, she heard a knock on her door.
When she opened it, Mark was standing in front of her, smiling.
They'd been flirting for weeks, and now in person she
clearly felt the chemistry.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
The first thing he did was put me up against
the wall and kissed me, which of course blew me
off my feet, like, oh my gosh, I've never had
that before.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
He's all was nervous that hanging out in person might
turn out to be an awkward endeavor, but to her surprise,
we got on.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
We laughed and it was nice. There was no awkward silences.
If there was a silence, it was comfortable.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
After that day, they started hanging out more often.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
He would come and see me whilst I was working nights,
whilst I was studying. He was making me laugh.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
She had spent years in her marriage taking care of
her ex husband. Mark was a breath of fresh air.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
It was different with Mark. It was so much affection.
We said it was a passion night neither one of
us had felt before.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Mark made her feel sexy and wanted. Before long, they
started dating officially. When Mark got off work, he would
go to Hazel's place and they would spend their evenings together.
Mark made even mundane things feel exciting.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Mark was stupid funny. He would make a twat out
of himself and you would just be laughing at him
rather than with him. He'd start doing really sinny dances
around the house. If a song came on, he'd start
stripping his clothes off, and I'm just sat there like,
what are you doing? But it was really funny and
we just got on. It just felt so natural, and
(08:41):
that laughter got me through.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Mark texted Hazel all the time. He didn't hide his
feelings for her.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
He would draw hearts on his phone and tell me
how beautiful I was. He would send a message and
he would say ill and then dash dash dash you,
And I was like, well, is that like or is
that love? Obviously it was love.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
When he wasn't around, she missed him.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
There was passion there that I'd never felt before, and
it felt really nice. It felt wonderful.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
She finally found someone that could meet her halfway.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
He had a stable job with a big company. The
pension was really good, and obviously I was training to
be a social worker.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
As time went on, Hazel started imagining what life with
Mark could look like.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I thought that this is great. Neither ofs have got children.
We could have two good incomes. He's got a stable job,
He's funny, he makes me laugh, he makes me feel
good about myself. There's a future here.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Hazel's friends were worried about how fast their relationship was moving.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
One of my friends, Vicki, said it's too quick. It's
too fast. She said it would be headline in the newspapers.
Meagered by the guests man, you know, jokingly, but Hazel
wasn't amused. Come on, sometimes things happen like this. You know.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
It was a big extreme. But her friend was suspicious,
and she had a good reason to be worried. A
(10:50):
few days after Hazel's husband moved out, she called the
gas company to fix her hot water. That led to
a meet cute with a man named Mark. After weeks
flirting over text, their relationship developed into something real. They
began hanging out whenever they could find time.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
I thought that this is great. He's got a stable job,
he's funny, he makes me laugh, he makes me feel
good about myself. There's a future here.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
The only complication was that he lived thirty minutes away,
but luckily he was often in her town for work.
They would make a date of it.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I would cook for him, he would come over. He
made me feel good about myself, telling me how beautiful
I was and how wonderful I was, and how we
were perfect for each other.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
At the time, he is always still in school training
to be a social worker. Her schedule was packed. It
helped that Mark was always willing to make the drive
to her place.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
I was so busy, I was studying, working, so it
just worked. It just fitted.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
But Mark had to work early mornings, so he rarely
spent the night.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
There was one day, for some reason, I think I
needed to go and get something from the shop. So
it was about half six so I was drive into
the shop and I saw Mark walking his dog in
my area.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
This was weird. Why would Mark be walking his dog
so far from his own house?
Speaker 2 (12:21):
And I stopped the car and I was like, what
are you doing around here? And he said, oh, oh,
my uncle lives around the corner, so sometimes I'll bring
the dog over and walk the dog around here. It's
got a really nice dog walking field of that. Okay,
a bit weird, but all right.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
He'd never mentioned he had family in her area, but
that made things even more convenient. A few days later,
Mark came over to Hazel's house. She went outside and
greeted him as he got out of his truck. As
she hugged him, her eyes landed on the front seat.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I saw an Amazon parcel with an address on it
two roads from where I live.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Mark lived a half hour away. Why would he have
a package addressed to a home in her neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I thought maybe he'd just got it delivered to his
uncle's house. Maybe that was easier for him. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
She made a mental note of the address. Hazel and
Mark had been dating for months. They'd become a part
of each other's daily lives. Many nights after work they'd
walk her dog Reco together. Mark loved Rico as much
as she did, and when they weren't together, they texted
and called each other constantly.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Talking on the phone all the time. Texting all the time.
If we ran out of things to say, we would
just send hearts to each other. Then we'd play games
and things on Snapchat if she's easy.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
For the first time in a long time, Hazel felt
settled in her life. She decided to buy the house
she'd been renting for the past few years, and she
started to consider asking Mark to take a big step
with her.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
I thought about him moving in here, living together, having
a stable relationship, which I hadn't had in such a
long time.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
One day, Hazel went on a hike with one of
her friends.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
We went to a place. It's called Simmons Yat and
it's a big lake, big forest, and we walked around
the woods. Such a beautiful place.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
After a few hours of hiking and catching up, they
headed home. On their drive back, she spotted what looked
like Mark's work van.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
He was parked on the side of the road.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Hazel did a double take. What was Mark doing out here?
Maybe it wasn't him, But as they drove closer, she
was sure it was Mark, and he was out of his.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Van and he was looking in his van, and we
just prod on driving.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Over the next few weeks, Hazel started seeing Mark's work
fan more and more. When she asked him about it,
he said he had a lot of repairs in the area,
but how many boilers could be broken on her street.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I felt really uneasy after he said that, but I thought, no,
it's fine, it's fine.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
One weekend, Mark told Hazel he was going on a trip.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
He was going to his friend's house that was in
the middle of nowhere, and he was spending all weekend
there and he was repiping the whole house, so he
wasn't able to talk to me. So I was like,
that's fine, that's no problem.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
She knew he couldn't talk while he was at his
friend's house, but she figured his drive there would be
a great time to catch.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Up, so I was like, I'll ring him on the way.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
She called Mark. Usually he picked up right away, but
this time it went to voicemail.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
He didn't answer, so I thought, Okay, something's not right.
He always answers the phone. The phone has rung, so
he's got signal.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Hazel had a bad feeling. She got back to the
Amazon package on his front seat. It was addressed to
a street just around the corner, so I thought.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Right, I'm going to get in my car and then
to drive down that road.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
She drove down the road, scanning each driveway nervously. She
wasn't sure what she was looking for or if she'd
find anything. After a few minutes, she saw something that
made her hit the brakes.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I saw his van parked on the drive.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
She drove closer, and sure enough, it was his license plate.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
We're talking two minutes two minute drive from my house.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
He said he was with a friend far away in
the countryside with no phone service, but his car was
parked right down the street from her. She texted Mark
and told him she saw his van parked in the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
He then went into kind of panic mode. He told
me that he'd gone up the road to find some
signal to ring me.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Mark insisted that he was visiting his friend, that he
was miles away.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
He's like, I'll send you my location.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
He sent her a screenshot of a map.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
He'd gone on to Google Maps and he'd sent me
a screenshot, and it was a little dot in the
middle of nowhere.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
For a second, it did look like Mark was in
the countryside, a small dot surrounded by big green fields.
But as Hazel looked closer, at the screenshot, she noticed
something was off.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
He'd cropped out the time and the date. I said,
I'm not stupid. I know you're not there right now.
If you were there right now, you wouldn't have cropped
out at the time. He carried on making up more nices,
telling me I'm being paranoid. Everything was in my head.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
But Hazel was staring straight at his van. She was
certain this was real. Whenever Mark came to Hazel's he
parked on the street. But here, at this house, he
was parked in the driveway. Did Mark live here? It
all felt suspicious, and he was clearly.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Lying to her, this is it. I can't be in
another relationship where there's this honesty. Once the trust is gone,
the trust is gone, you can't get it back. I said,
I'm done. I'm done. It's over. I can't do this anymore.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
As soon as she said that, Mark's tone shifted. He
responded right away and began telling Hazel that this was
all her fault.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
It's all because of my ex husband. Why I'm so broken.
I don't deserve him, really, just the horrible, horrible messages.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
No matter what he said to her, Hazel knew what
she'd seen he was lying, and she'd caught him in
the act. That's when Mark stopped pretending. He admitted that
he lived in that house just two minutes away from her.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Ob Jove passed his size every day.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
At this point, Mark knew all his lives were unraveling,
so he admitted the full truth.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
He then told me about his girlfriend and his daughter.
I was in a state of shock.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Lying about where he lived was one thing, but this
was so much darker than that. Mark was lying about
his entire light.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
He lives in the same area as me, and he's
been lying from day one. Hazel was disgusted, but then
reflecting on it, it all makes sense. Never spent the night,
you know. I thought it was because it fitted in
with me, and it fitted in with.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
My work really well.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
But clear made sense, And Wyna, did I not clock
on to Yeah, there's probably somebody else.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Mark was grasping extras trying to get her back. He
told her he would leave his family for her.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
And when she said she didn't want that, trying to
blame me. Maybe think it was all in my head,
you know, real gaslighting, horrible behavior.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Mark was being cruel in a way. She had never
experienced before.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
And I was like, I'm done, get stuff, get out
my house. I don't want you anyone near me.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
At the time, Hazel was working at a women's center
where she was training to be a social worker.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Which was the perfect place for me to be going
through all this because I had on hands support and
they advised me to not block people. Don't block people
like that because if they don't have a channel of communication,
that's when they start turning up, and then obviously you
were at bigger risk. So I didn't block him.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Mark was messaging her incessantly, biding her, trying everything to
get her attention.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
It was horrendous. It brought back so many feelings that
I'd kind of buried from my relationship with my husband.
I felt all the anxiety was coming back, mistrust, I
felt sick, I couldn't eat, I lost so much weight.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Mark was getting increasingly agitated and desperate. Then she got
an alarming message from him.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Saying that he'd had a heart attack and was in
hospital and he'd almost died, and I thought, oh my god,
have I done this? I felt awful. I messaged him
back and said, you know you're going to be okay.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
You're in the right place, Mark responded right away. He
told her that he was about to go in for
heart surgery.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
He was texting me from his hospital bed, saying that
he was being pushed towards theater and that he could
see the lights above his head because he was led flat.
That's all he was trying to focus on.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Hazel's concern melted away and was replaced by skepticism.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I've had enough operations in my life to know you
don't take your phone to an operating data All your
belongings get bagged up and they get put safely away somewhere.
So I was like, come on, at this point, I'm
just like, this is bullshit. This isn't true.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
When Hazel ignored Mark's texts, she started getting harassing, coercive
messages from unknown numbers.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I then got messages on Facebook signal and I messages
pleading apologizing.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
When she first met Mark, she thought he was her
ticket get out of a dark period of her life,
but now he was pulling her further and deeper into
despair and isolation.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
I was managing to eat crackers and drink water. That
was all I could kind of keep down is the
time and that just kind of escalated, and you know,
I was already kind of burning out with what I
was doing, but then not being able to eat and
keep food down, I was just burning out even more.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
She decided to get on a dating app.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
I think I was just looking for somebody to make
me feel better because I couldn't make myself feel better.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
She matched with a few guys and started messaging one
of them more regularly. Eventually they moved their conversation off
the app and on to Facebook Messenger.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
But then I started getting messages from Mark about the
things that I was saying with this guy. My private
message is to this guy. He knew the bloat's name,
he knew what the context we were talking about. He
said that we were talking about awful things.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Hazel was scared.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
How do you know that I haven't spoken to you?
And he's like, the guy's messaged me and told me
and sent me screenshots.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
But this guy didn't even know that Mark existed. That's
when it dawned on Hazel.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
You've hacked into my Facebook.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
She changed her Facebook password, but that was only a
temporary solution. She was getting calls and texts from unknown
numbers at all hours of the day.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
The messages carried on, and then it got kind of
really nasty, so he started calling me a whore, started
calling me a slut for moving on so quickly.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Mark's behavior was escalating. Hazel decided to reach out for support.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
I ran one oh one, which is our non emergency
police line, but they said they've gotten a way of
tracking him, trying my network provider. My network provider did
offer for me have block numbers stopped, but actually, sometimes
important people wing on block numbers, the police ring on
block numbers, the doctors do so actually that would be
(25:11):
impacting my life more.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
So, Hazel was left to deal with Mark on her own.
Knowing that he lived in her neighborhood was terrifying. She
was scared he was hiding around every corner.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
I couldn't drive past his house, so I was doing
a detour. Every time I saw one of those vans,
I'd get panic attacks.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
She remembered how often she ran into him when they
were dating. Now she wondered, had that really been a coincidence.
She checked to find my friends on her phone and
saw that market access to her location, but she'd never
given it to him.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
He must have got my phone at some point while
we were together and set my location so he could
see it.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
He was tracking her, and maybe he'd been tracking her
since the very beginning. She didn't know what else he knew,
or what other ways he might be watching her.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
I didn't feel safe. It was horrible, it was invasive.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
She lived in a state of paranoia for months.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
One morning, I'd come downstairs and we've got candles. They're
called Imperial candles, and they smell absolutely beautiful, and they've
got jewelry inside. So I'd gone downstairs and the candle
had burnt down enough that I could get the jewey out.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
He's all stood by the breakfast bar fishing out the
jewelry from the candle.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
So I was stood there for quite a while because
they're quite hard to get out.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Then she heard something.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
I heard noise.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
She looked up slowly in the corner of her living room.
She kept a pet camera.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
I always had the camera pointing at the front door
because that was where Rico would always owl.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
But now the camera was turning slowly looking around the room.
Somebody was controlling it remotely. When it was pointing directly
at her, the camera stopped and.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I just froze, I think he's in my camera.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
After Hazel broke up with Mark, he began harassing her.
It started with incessant text messages and calls, then he
hacked into her Facebook account, and then one morning, Hazel
was in her living room when she heard her pet
camera move. Someone was controlling it remotely. When it was
pointing directly at her, the camera stopped and I just
(28:07):
stood and I just froze.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
She grabbed her phone and logged into the pet camera app.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
And it said two viewers, so me and somebody else.
Now I didn't live with anyone else, never given the
access to anybody. No one else should have had any
access to the camera.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
This had to be Mark. And with the camera pointed
straight at her, she knew he was watching her. That
very moment.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
I thought, okay, just trying a normal I picked up
my keys, I picked up my phone, and I just
left the house.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
He's always rattled.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
What's going to happen next? I don't know what to do.
If I hut off my camera, is he going to
start turning up?
Speaker 1 (28:56):
She ran through options in her mind.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I deleted all of his message years. At one point
because I didn't want to read the mcgannal, didn't want
to relive it. So I thought, okay, if I ring
the police, I've got no evidence, so it's my word
against his.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Eventually she decided to confront Mark directly.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
I messaged him and I said, I know you've been
on my camera. I know you've been watching me.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Enter her surprise, they admitted it.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
He said that it was because he missed me so
much and it didn't know how else for me to
be part of his life.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
His words were alarming, but he's all gained something valuable.
I had evidence he'd admitted in writing what he'd done
and why he did it. He's all reported him to
the police.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
The police came out to see me the next day,
took a full statement, asked me what I wanted to do,
and they gave me three options. They said they can
have a word with him and tell him to stop.
They can, or they can just record it in case
something else happens, and then they've got a bigger picture.
And I sat there and I just thought, if something
(30:11):
else happens.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Her mind went to dark places. What did they mean
if something else happens?
Speaker 2 (30:19):
And that kind of sat with me, and I thought
it's escalated to the point already, which is horrendous. Didn't
feel safe in my own home.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
So she told the police she'd made her decision.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
You've got to arrest him because I don't know where
this is going to end. He's a liar, he's a manipulator,
and he's an abuser, and I don't think he'll stop
unless he's made to still.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
A few days later, Mark was arrested.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
He'd been arrested on suspicion of stalking and arrestment.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
He still knew he was still employed by the gas company.
She called them and explained that Mark was a liar
ability to their customer's safety.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
I was just trying to get my point across and
say that this man is dangerous and you've got him
going into people's homes and you need to get him out.
They said it was the wireless heating system company's problem.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
So Hazel called them, and then.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
They said it's the gas company's problem. So I was
just getting bound from the two companies and I was
on the phone for als.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
This pathway wasn't working. Nobody she spoke to and knew
how to help with Mark's trial coming up, Hazel decided
she wanted her story to serve a broader purpose. She
wanted to spread awareness about stalking and perpetrators like Mark.
Before Mark's trial, Hazel reached out to her local newspaper.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
To make sure there was a reporter there because I
thought this isn't going under the carpet.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
On the day of Mark's trial, Hazel went to court.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
I felt that I needed to be there to show
him that he hadn't broken me. I had probably about
seven or eight friends with me that had come to
be there and to support me. I read my victim
impact statement, and my hands they were really really shaking.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
There was overwhelming evidence of Marx's harassment and stalking, including
his own confession to Hazel.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
He played guilty. He got an eighteen week prison sentence
suspended for twelve months. He got an indefinite restraining order
preventing any contact with myself, and he's not allowed in
my road.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Two days later, the local newspaper reported on Hazel's story
and Mark's crimes. Over the coming weeks and months, the
story spread to other outlets across the UK.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
I had paper writing to me and magazine's writing to me.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
We've had voice actors read some of the headlines. We've
anatomized the name of Mark's former employer, gas engineer who
hacked into excess pet camera to spy on her avoids jail.
This is what it's like to be stocked in your
own hall. Gloucestershire woman's full account of how ex gas
engineer hacked into her cameras after fixing her boiler. Gas
(33:24):
engineer stocked ex girlfriend by hacking pet camera inside her home.
Telling her story was challenging at first, but she has
continued to tell it because she knows how important it
is to put language to her experience.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
I didn't think of harassment and stalking. I just saw
it as he's got a screw loose and he just
needs to leave me alone. It wasn't until the police
said stalking and harassment that I really started to reflect
on what I had gone through and how serious it was.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
When Mark showed up at her house to fix her boiler,
Hazel was at her most vulnerable when she was talking
with her friend about her divorce. Mark was in the
next room.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
He was listening to everything. He told me that later
on he was listening to the fact that I was crying.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
He heard her desperation, and just hours later he swooped
in and started flirting with her. Mark saw Hazel was lost.
Because of that, she'd make the perfect target. One night,
Hazel got a call from an unknown number and I.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Was like, oh my god, the restraining order hasn't worked.
None of this has worked. He thinks he can message
me again and ring me.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Nervously, she picked up the phone. She braced herself to
hear Mark's voice. Instead, it was the CEO of the
gas company.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
And he said he'd read the article. He terminated Mark's
contract with immediate effect. He already had people going to
his house to collect the van, collect all the equipment,
and he was very sympathetic as to what happened.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
The gas company connected her with mental health services.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
They gave me counseling through their counseling service, which helped
me a lot use CBT, which really did change my
view on him. He wasn't scary anymore. He was just
this little pathetic man that it's just not worth my time,
my thought, my energy.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Even though it had taken a stocking conviction, it was
meaningful that the company reached out to support her.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
I received an apology and lots of reassurance, and they
actually use that case now in training moving forward, so
that's really positive. I think if something like that happened
again that maybe it would be dealt with differently.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Hazel suspects that Mark's girlfriend found out that he was
cheating on her. After Hazel broke up with him, she
learned that his girlfriend had also kicked him out of
the house. But more recently, Hazel saw Mark and his
girlfriend together in their driveway. That means Mark is still
two roads away.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
So I drive past his house mose days, but I
do it with my head held high. He didn't win.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Hazel has a permanent restraining order against Mark. He's not
allowed on her road, but that only offers so much protection.
It was scary knowing that Mark lived around the corner.
For a while, Hazel thought about moving, but in the
end she decided to stay. It didn't seem right that
she should be the one forced out of their neighborhood.
(36:56):
For Hazel, staying in her home symbolizes.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Didn't win this. He didn't break me.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
She didn't want Mark to be the reason she loved
a place she loves deeply. She wanted to rebuild and
make her home somewhere she felt comfortable again, so she
decided to renovate.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
I completely ripped out everything and started again. I kind
of took back the safety of my house and made
it so different that if he walked in air and
now I would recognize it.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
She refuses to uproot her life because of what Mark did. Instead,
she's leaned into her community and shifted her mindset.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
It's made me stronger. I will not take any shit.
I won't I will not put up with anything. I
will not be told I can't do something or be
spoken about disrespectfully by anybody.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Knowing the realities of stalking and harassment firsthand has informed
her career.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
It's made me a better social worker in cases like this.
I will share some of my story with some families.
We'll sit and we'll talk about red flags.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
We asked Hazel to share the signs she encourages people
to look out for.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
The massive one is love bombing. If somebody is in
love with you after a couple of days, run for
the hills. Like run for the hills, you can't be
in love with somebody after a couple of days.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
We had every weekly episode with the same question, why
do you want to share your story.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
What happened to me? I lighted the gaps in how
people are protected. There's professionals that are coming into your home.
You would expect them to be safe. You would expect
them to have checks done on them, to know that
they are safe to be entered in people's homes. This
(39:02):
isn't just my story. It's about awareness, accountability and reminds
in people to put their safety first.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly, my sister starts
receiving these text messages from an unknown number. Who else
is getting these messages? Why did it start with us?
(39:38):
If you'd like to share your story on Betrayal, please
email Betrayalpod at gmail dot com. That is Betrayalpod at
gmail dot com. Please note that we are not a
mental health organization. If you are in crisis or currently
experiencing domestic violence, we encourage you to seek local help
(40:00):
dial nine to one one. Please contact organizations that offer
immediate support and our show notes, we've included a list
of US based resources. You can follow us on Instagram
at Betrayal Pod or find me at It's Andrea Gunning
to access our newsletter and additional content and to connect
with the Betrayal community, join our substack at Betrayal dot
(40:23):
substack dot com. We're grateful for your support. One way
to show support is by subscribing to our show on
Apple Podcasts. Don't forget to rate and review Betrayal five
star reviews go a long way. Big thank you to
all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts,
a division of Glass Entertainment Group and partnership with iHeart Podcasts.
(40:47):
The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason,
hosted and produced by me Andrea Gunning, written and produced
by Olivia Hewitt. Our story editor is Monique Leboord, also
produced by Benfai Betterman. Our associate producer is Leah Jablow.
Production management by Kristin Melcuriy, booking support by Curry Richmond.
(41:08):
Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Tresica Crincheck. Audio
editing by Tanner Robbins with additional editing and mixing by
Matt Albecchio. Betrayals theme composed by Oliver Bains. Music library
provided by my Music and For more podcasts from iHeart,
visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get
(41:29):
your podcasts,
Host
Andrea Gunning
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