Paul C. Brunson: Red Flag (2026) s01e03 Episode Script

1
I've spent most of my adult life
helping people find and keep love,
working at the forefront
of modern dating,
to study how we feel
about the partners we choose.
But I know relationships
have a darker side.
How are you doing?
Lovely to meet you.
I'm meeting survivors
of toxic relationships,
hearing their stories
and reliving pivotal moments
to help reveal the red flags
abusers tried to hide.
He just made me think
that he was my only option.
I naively thought he's just
a bit insecure in himself.
I felt stuck in that relationship
for so long.
When you're in it, you can't see it.
You cannot see it.
I hid a lot of things away because
I didn't want people to know.
A red flag is a warning sign.
And by spotting a red flag,
you not only protect your loved
ones, but you protect yourself.
I'm meeting Megan,
who survived two years
of manipulation,
infidelity and violence
by her boyfriend Dan.
He launched out of bed
and kind of got me into a corner
and put me in a chokehold,
but then it kind of
started getting worse.
I just remember being, like,
"My children are going to wake up
"to find me, like,
dead in the hallway or, like,
"in the garden or just not here."
Megan's ordeal took a shocking twist
after she left Dan
Hi, Megan? Armed police.
Are we all right to come in
and have a quick chat with you?
..when they both became victims of
death threats by a mystery stalker.
I'm going to get you, Meg.
Wow. Yeah.
That gives me chills.
Turn and face the stairs for me
and keep your hands
where I can see them.
I'll put these handcuffs on you.
Handcuffs?
That's incredible.
Like, that's wild.
Yeah, I didn't really trust anyone,
to be honest.
I remember I just sat on the floor
crying. I was like, I can't do it.
There she is. There she is.
It is an honour to meet you.
Aw, thank you.
I have been reading
quite a bit about your story,
and I'm honestly blown away.
One of the biggest shocks
to me, though,
was what happens
after you two break-up.
Mm-hm. You lived it. Mm-hm.
Had you ever heard or seen
of something like that happening?
No. No Obviously,
aware that stalking does happen
but I definitely thought
it was more physical.
So when it was all going on,
it didn't originally kind of click
that that's what was happening.
But no, I'd not heard anything
like that before.
After two turbulent years together,
Megan and Daniel Dugdale split,
only to become the twin targets
of a relentless digital stalker.
So when Dugdale initially
reported it to the police,
they were receiving missed calls.
Um, mostly social media,
Facebook messages from anonymous
accounts with made up names.
It's definitely
one of the worst stalking cases
that we've seen for a while.
Police officer with Taser.
Whoa, what's going on?
Keep your hands where
I can see them. I'm sorry, sir.
There's been a message sent
saying that you've killed somebody.
I've what?!
There's no real escape from it,
so it really does
invade your whole life.
Hi, Megan, it's armed police.
Do you know who?
I don't know who this stalker is.
It's doing my head in. Yeah, yeah.
I can't imagine how Megan coped
with this ordeal
and the complicated dynamic
of living through it
with her abusive ex-partner, Dan.
So I want to understand
their relationship from the start.
If you can take me back Mm-hm.
..what is your mind state
when you and Dan meet?
I was very
I wouldn't like to say vulnerable
because I don't like
to portray myself as that,
but I would have been.
And I definitely wasn't myself.
I've got two kids. I'm busy,
so I didn't have a lot of free time.
And, you know,
I'd only lost my dad
a year before as well,
so still very much in that haze,
so I felt very lost.
Megan was full-on as a baby.
And that's what her name means is
"strong one."
That's why we chose it.
The boys in her teens,
they were interested in Megan
cos she was stunning,
even though she couldn't see it.
She had a few boyfriends,
sort of mid-teens.
I don't know how,
but she fell pregnant.
And then she had another one.
There wasn't a man around.
Um, it was just her and the kids.
She'd had a rough relationship
previously,
but she'd then gone through
losing her dad to brain cancer,
nursing him whilst
trying to work, juggle the kids.
And it was literally
just months after
that Dan appeared,
after losing her dad.
So this particular spot,
this is where I first met Dan.
When was the first moment
that you spotted him?
Yeah, so, I mean, I was literally,
where that little bit of wall is.
I was just sat literally against it.
My kids are playing here,
and obviously I notice Dan.
And he kind of smiled and that.
And I was like, OK.
He then came over, maybe after about
ten minutes, to start talking, yeah.
OK.
When I met Dan, I wasn't even
remotely looking for anything.
And it's kind of as I was getting up
to leave that he was,
"Oh, can I have your phone number?"
I remember being like,
"Uh, yeah, OK."
You did not want to?
Yeah. I think I was more shocked.
I remember him being like,
"Oh, I'll message you later,"
and I was like,
"Yeah, that's fine."
I just thought,
"Wow, he's eager." But
This eagerness is interesting
because I think there is eagerness,
but then there is completely
refusing someone's hesitation.
Yeah. That's the red flag there.
He knew you had short answers. Yeah.
He could tell you didn't want
to give up your phone number. Yeah.
You didn't ask him for his,
you know, at all.
Yeah. But yet he did that
to apply pressure. Yeah.
Test your boundaries. Yeah.
And I think within an hour
he'd messaged me,
I don't think I'd even left town.
When it came up,
I remember kind of being like,
"Wow, that's quick.
Like, I've not even left."
So I remember, I kind of left it
until at least the evening.
Oh, so you didn't even respond
immediately? No, no, I was, like,
"I'm in town, I'm busy."
What Dan was doing early
was a red flag.
Yeah, yeah. And that was,
"Let me see
if I can test her boundary." Mm.
Like, "I'm going to send a text
within an hour
"just to see what the reaction is."
Yeah. And the moment
that there's a little bit given
back Mm-hm.
..that's license to continue to
push. Mm-hm.
And then also push beyond your level
of hesitation. Yeah.
Cos you were hesitant.
Yeah. Yeah, 100%, yeah.
But he completely disregarded that.
Yeah.
Where most of us would have,
"Oh, you're hesitant.
Let me stand back." Mm-hm.
He saw you were hesitant,
so he stepped step closer. Mm-hm.
I don't ever
want to come across rude.
So I'll kind of be like,
"Well, I can't just leave it."
So, yeah, I think obviously
I just ended up replying.
So when Megan met Dan,
she didn't say much about him.
And then the first time
she sent me a picture of him,
I was like, "Oh, OK,
not what I expected."
And I can remember saying to her,
"Megan, he's got tattoos
by his eyes.
"Murderers have that, don't they?"
And she was just like,
"Mum, that's a bit over the top.
"You've watched too much CSI."
We ended up talking more.
I ended up meeting him
after he finished a shift,
maybe a few weeks later.
And we just went for, like, a walk.
So I picked him up from work,
which wasn't too far from here.
This is beautiful.
This is beautiful.
Would you call it, a date?
Yeah, I would, yeah,
cos it wasn't obviously
friends going for a walk. So, yeah.
It was a date? Yeah. It was a date.
What do you think you were trying
to signal to him?
Were you trying to say,
"I'm into you but yet
I want to move at a slow pace?"
It's only a walk. You know,
it's not anything too much,
but, yeah, I remember walking
and he was very happy-go-lucky.
I remember kind of being like,
you know,
"He'd be a nice person
to be around."
And he made you feel like
you were lucky to know him.
So I definitely kind of got that
vibe pretty much straight off.
OK. Yeah. OK.
After that walk,
what happened next?
Well, so, obviously,
met in the September.
We'd take the kids out to parks
and stuff.
We ended up just kind of being
together pretty much all the time.
And then I think it was
maybe mid-December.
He was round all of the time.
Well, you might as well
just move in.
It did feel quick,
but, yeah, that's just how it went.
When I first met Dan I just felt
that he was really desperate for us
to like him, to have approval,
cos she really wasn't sure herself.
So it just it went downhill pretty
quickly after he moved in.
I know I can pay the bills.
I was like,
"if you live here,
then it should be split."
But then if I asked,
it would end up in an argument.
And obviously it did escalate
a lot further
than I ever thought it would.
Two months into their relationship,
Dan has moved into Megan's house
with her two kids.
Megan wasn't looking
for a partner.
So what did this big step
feel like for her?
So you meet in September. Mm.
It's serious by December. Mm-hm.
Was that a mutual decision
for him just to move in?
Yes, I think he was talking about it
first, being like,
his kind of, his tenancy is coming
up for renewal kind of thing.
But it was him that started
that conversation.
So he rushed it. Yeah.
What he was doing there is
a red flag called rapid integration.
Mm-hm. He is not only rushing
and putting additional pressure
on you, but what he's trying to do
is he's trying to
further push your boundaries. Mm-hm.
The more he can fast track
the relationship,
the more intertwined you feel
in the relationship.
And that intertwining
is feeling stuck.
Yeah, yeah. Pretty much
from the get go, he was persistent,
but I didn't
Maybe didn't notice that.
I didn't at first really notice
much change in Megan.
The only thing I would say that
I mean, and this is me, not Megan,
that I didn't like
when I was over there
was the fact that he didn't
seem to help in the house at all.
She was doing everything.
He seemed to become more lazy,
more surly, didn't talk as much.
I was like, "You can move in
with us, that's fine,
"as long as you work
and pay your way, that's no issue."
So did he pay his way?
No.
Dan would take money
out of my account,
and either I wouldn't know about it,
or he would use, like,
my details on, like,
gambling websites.
And then I'd have to then subsidise
out all of my savings into my wages.
And if I ever questioned him,
it would be,
"No, I didn't do that.
I didn't do that."
In this savings, how had you
saved up that money?
So some of it was just mine that
I managed to save over the years,
but most of it was just inheritance
from my dad's,
uh, like pensions. Yeah.
How much of that,
your father's inheritance,
did you end up going through?
Would have been between
10 and 14 grand.
She lost all the money
that her dad left her
when he passed away.
Cos Dan managed
to access her account,
and he gambled it all away.
She's still paying his debts off.
I just don't get how you can
..do that to someone
you say you love.
This is definitely a red flag.
This is financial exploitation,
without question. Yeah, yeah.
But I feel as if it's
totally different
to know that it's inheritance,
especially from a parent.
That touches you, too.
I'm sorry.
We didn't even touch on
the fact that you're a mom.
Yeah. Throughout this
with young children. Yeah.
And you are trying to make
a way for them.
Yeah, that's what it's for.
And I think that's what upsets me
because I would have just given that
to them.
People will say,
"Well, gosh, how do you just stay?"
In a past relationship, I went
through a horrible time with him,
but I remember kind of being like,
"I will never let myself go through
anything like that again."
So when he started showing
all these kind of behaviours,
I remember just being embarrassed.
Like, I was so embarrassed
that I'd ended up with someone who,
again, was doing these
kind of things.
And then you do feel stuck.
I think you saying "I feel stuck"
is a great description. Yeah.
What he's doing is, is literally
he's trying to dig a hole.
Yeah. Me, personally,
there has been a moment for me
where I felt helpless. Mm-hm.
And when I think about
being helpless,
you don't have the energy
to reach up. Yeah.
You don't have the energy
to pull yourself out. Yeah.
Yeah, I think it just
weighs you down over time as well.
So you end up just
putting up with it.
Now, in this early part
of the relationship,
has he shown you
that he is fully committed to you?
We officially were together
in December,
and it would have been
maybe two or three months after,
I'd got messages from this woman
saying that he slept with her,
he had being contacting her.
But he twisted it as the woman
was just playing a bit of a game.
I have four screenshots
of just some messages to the lady.
So you are seeing
all of these on his phone?
Yeah. And then it was just
one after another after another.
Another woman after another. Yeah.
Sometimes he'd apologise.
Most of the time he acted like
nothing happened, that I was tapped,
that I'd made it up.
So he's gaslighting.
Yeah, yeah, 100%.
He's making you doubt reality.
What happened, yeah.
And you see how this is
clearly a red flag? Mm.
And all this time, you could see now
why you do feel stuck and isolated.
Megan was having to deal with
Dan's manipulation and lies
on top of studying
and working at events.
Megan's taking me
to her old workplace
so I can try to understand
how Dan's behaviour
affected every part of her life.
So just in front of us
is where I used to work.
While you were with Dan? Yeah.
Trained and worked here,
for about six, seven years.
I think so many of us,
especially the workaholics,
what we do is we just say,
"All right, you know what?
"We're just going to work our way
through it."
Yeah. "I'll deal with that later."
"I'll deal with that later."
I just put everything I had
into my work and my job and, like,
getting through my studies
cos I was like,
"I don't want to fail anything.
I don't want to miss anything."
Got a lot of fond memories there,
for sure,
um, that has quite
obviously significant meaning
for me being able
to do the career I wanted,
and I had a really great team
that I worked with.
And I would imagine
through how challenging it was
being with Dan, this was perhaps
your only safe space. Yeah.
I did obviously prefer being at work
to home, at the time,
cos I knew as well,
if anything happened here, like,
they have my back.
Oh, look at this.
Hello!
This is my old head nurse, Lorna.
Oh, really? Yeah!
Hi. How are you?
I'm good, I'm good.
Did you work here with Megan?
Yeah, yeah.
What was it like working with her?
Oh, she's fabulous.
Yes, we all miss her.
Aw, thanks. I'm going to cry.
THEY LAUGH
What's beautiful
is that she had you all here,
and this was a safe space for her.
Oh, yeah, 100%. Yeah. Yeah,
they were all great. Bless 'em.
All right, guys, got to go.
See you later.
Look at that. Yeah. See?
Oh, God, I'm sorry,
she sent me off.
Megan, what we said
about apologising on crying,
you can't do it. You just
You just have to do it. Yeah.
Fine. Yeah, you just have to do it.
I didn't expect them to come out.
Were there any other signals
from Dan
that made you fearful for yourself
or fearful for your children?
He'd always be like, "Oh,
I finish at, say, nine, ten,"
cos he was a chef in the kitchen.
I lost count of how many times
he's just falling through the door,
you know, at half four, five
in the morning. Absolutely wasted.
If I questioned him,
he'd make out that I was insane.
And that's, I suppose,
more when the aggression started
physically from him.
The worst time, he'd come in
and someone called him
or texted him.
And it was just a load of
notifications from another woman.
So I just threw the phone
onto the bed,
being like, "Who the fuck is this?"
Like, "You're taking the piss!"
Um, and he, like,
launched out of bed
..and kind of got me into a corner
and put me in a choke hold.
I just remember being like,
"My children are going to wake up
"to find me, like,
dead in the hallway."
It's three months since Megan
let Daniel Dugdale move in.
She's confronted him about messages
she found from other women,
and he's retaliated
with a violent attack,
strangling Megan
while her kids sleep.
I remember kind of feeling like
I was going in and out
of consciousness,
cos it was very hazy.
I remember trying to, like, claw
at his hands to kind of be like,
"Get off." But I also remember not
being able to get enough oxygen in
and kind of not being able
to get any words out.
And I don't even know
how long that went on for
because I just lost all track.
I don't know
how I managed get out of it.
I managed to kind of get him off me
eventually.
I remember he was just, like,
screaming at me.
Um, and obviously I'm like,
"Keep it quiet."
Like, the kids were asleep,
I'm trying to not be loud.
He just went back to bed
like nothing had happened.
Something that you just said
has really made me reflect. Mm.
The moment that he is
So he's strangling you? Yeah.
But you were not thinking of you.
You were in a position where
he could kill you.
But you were thinking about
your children.
That's one of those where
I can't imagine
what it's like to go through that.
But I understand your position,
because as a parent,
my primary duty
is to protect my children.
And in that moment,
you are not making a sound
to do your best to protect them.
My grandson seemed quite happy
with Dan.
Dan was giving him
quite a lot of attention,
but then as it went on,
he used to say,
"I'm not sure that I actually
like him, Nanny."
You know,
"Dan was shouting a lot last night
"and I could hear Mummy
trying to tell him to shush,
"he was going to wake us up,
but I was already awake,"
and that was hard to deal with
because then, you know,
you try and play it down
to children, don't you?
So that they're not
You don't want them worrying
as well.
What is your thought in terms of you
in this relationship?
Remember trying to be like,
"You need to get
the fuck out of my house.
"You need to just leave."
And he would go for like a day
and then bombard me
with either messages or,
you know, of him crying,
making me feel bad
that I'd done that.
So he ended up always just
coming back.
I just remember the cheating
kept kind of happening.
And then I got to
a point of being like,
"I'm 30 something next month.
I don't want to do this any more."
I remember it was like
the 17th or 18th of December,
and I remember just being like,
"We're done."
Like, "I don't want anything to do
with you."
I remember being like, "But I'm not
a bitch. I'm not going to just
"throw you out onto the streets -
it's the middle of winter."
You've given Dan the opportunity
to stay. Mm.
How do you go about day-to-day life
with him in the house?
It was awkward, like, I hated it.
I remember he kept trying to, like,
make conversation
and I'd be like,
"Will you just fuck off?"
And then he was just
basically saying
that he was getting
these weird messages.
It'd be like some random,
like, Facebook message
on the Messenger app.
So then he's getting messages
from someone?
Yeah, I think at the start
I was kind of just like,
"For fuck's sake." Like,
"I don't need to be dragged into
more of your drama."
Well, OK, so this is big, right?
Dan has a stalker. Yeah.
That's incredible.
Like, that's wild. Yeah. It's wild.
Megan and Daniel were split up,
but they were still living in
the same address.
So when Dugdale initially
reported it to the police,
he was reporting
that he was being online stalked.
The perpetrator was
posing as Daniel Dugdale,
confessing to crimes he'd done,
such as murder.
So on one of the occasions,
it was a message that said,
"I've murdered someone.
"Please can you call the police?"
Police officer with Taser.
Whoa. What's going on?
OK, my colleague
is going to approach you.
She's going to put handcuffs
on you. Handcuffs?
What for? Hands behind your back.
Who else is in the property?
Just me and the dogs.
There's been a message sent saying
that you've killed somebody.
I've what?
That's the information we've got.
Killed who?! ..information.
Can you just call that person
who's on my phone, please?
Not right now.
Megan. My missus. OK.
Hello? Is that Megan?
Are you alive?
You're
I've got four police officers here.
Apparently, someone's called them
saying that I've murdered you.
What am I on about?
Speak. What's your name?
Speak to her.
Hi, Megan. I'm calling from
Thorpe Wood police station.
No worries.
Do you have a thought as to
who is stalking him and why?
I just remember thinking it was
just someone that he's upset,
someone's boyfriend that's maybe
knowing that he's messed around
with his girlfriend
and causing a bit of an issue.
A few days later
..I would get a random message
here and there.
When you say you got, "We'd get
a random message here and there"
What was the random message?
The stalker would make
these group chats,
especially on like, Messenger,
where it was like my profile,
Dan's and then the stalker.
So this is a chat between?
The stalker and Dan, yeah.
So in this, from what I see,
is Dan is defending you.
Yeah. Against the stalker. Yeah.
You know,
it's happening to him as well.
He says, "Leave Megan out of it."
Mm-hm.
He's almost trying
to protect you. Mm. OK.
From what I could
Was being told, Dugdale was being
very supportive of Megan.
They were talking about
what was happening a lot.
He'd say things like,
"No, don't hurt her. Come for me.
I'm the one you want."
So I think that went on
for probably two to three weeks,
and then he moved out
and went to live somewhere else.
So he finally leaves.
Mm-hm.
Do you feel?
Oh, instantly so much better, yeah.
How would you describe
that feeling?
You know, things are a mess.
I've got no money.
He's put me in a load of debt.
Um, but I don't have
I don't have him to worry about.
I don't have this behaviour
to worry about. I can come home,
it's mine and my kids' home,
you know?
And I was just looking forward to
not having him to deal with. Yeah.
We feel like,
"OK, we're finally done with Dan."
But we're not. Mm-hm.
He would message me saying
he was scared to go to work,
didn't want to walk anywhere
on his own.
Um, that he'd been getting all
these messages and calls that day,
that he's not sleeping, not eating.
"I don't really need to be dragged
into more of your drama."
That's when it starts
to get really bad for me.
The stalker kept sending taxis
to my house.
They were knocking
all hours of the night.
They'd set my dogs off
and wake my kids up.
I'd end up sleeping downstairs
on a chair or on the table,
and just so I could lean out the
window and tell people to go away.
What do the threats become
against you?
Loads and loads of messages
that tell me to go and kill myself.
Drive off the road.
That my kids would be better off
without me.
There'd be messages of rape
and that I would be begging
for it. I'd enjoy it.
They'd send through pictures
of like dogs that look like mine,
but obviously very mutilated.
Goodness.
There'd be like fake profiles
in my name
to like friends and family
saying that I died.
I've never come across anyone, ever
who has had these all of these
allegations against them.
In the January, I got a message
with a picture attached
of somebody
lying in a pool of blood
in a hallway,
and all I could see
were the floor tiles.
They were the same floor tiles
that she had.
And the dark hair.
Yeah, that was horrific.
I got sent pictures while I was at
work of like me at reception desk
and another member of staff as well.
Um, and they must have been stood
literally about here.
So it was dark, we had lights on
so we can't see out.
But the pictures were,
you know, of us at reception.
To be sent pictures
literally while I'm there
Oh, my God. Yeah. And then
at that point, your stalker knows
everything about you - where you
live. Yeah. Where you work. Yeah.
Would have been easy to find out my
shift patterns. If they know where
I work, they could literally
work out when I start and finish.
How many messages did you get?
It must have been around 60,000
on, like, every platform.
60,000?
Yeah. Yeah. It was a lot.
Very draining.
Yeah.
The perpetrator was posing as Megan
on social media,
confessing to crimes
that Megan had allegedly done,
giving out Megan's address
and asking for the police
to be called to her address.
So on one of the occasions,
it was a message that Megan
had killed her kids.
KNOCKING
Hello, is it Megan? I'm Megan.
Megan. Hi, Megan.
Hi. It's armed police.
And I opened the door and there's,
like, a whole SWAT team there.
There's ambulances.
There's police outside.
I'm going to be perfectly frank
with you.
We've had information that
you've potentially stabbed someone.
I saw this video footage
from the police,
and what shocked me, truly,
was how reserved you were.
Mm. But how did you feel inside?
Were you calm?
Probably not.
I think I'm quite calm in general,
but I do remember kind of being
like, "What the fuck is going on?"
Yeah, just to confirm
we've got Megan
and her kids
are fast asleep upstairs.
We're talking to her now.
Certainly no-one's been stabbed.
Uh, we've searched the house.
We're happy it is a malicious call.
How Like, how do you function?
I just kind of isolated myself
from everyone.
I didn't really trust anyone,
to be honest.
Good evening, Cambridgeshire Police.
How can we help?
I've had a very strange message
on my Facebook saying,
"I've just murdered my kids and ex.
My name is Megan.
"I need you to help.
Can you call the police, please?"
How many times from that moment
do the police then come back
to your house? I've lost count.
DOORBELL
And how do you know why we're here?
Apparently I've killed my ex
and kids. Yeah.
This was a full-scale assault,
leaving anonymous tip-offs
against her.
Oh, are you happy just for us
to check the?
Check the kids upstairs.
They might be awake,
but they might be asleep.
Yeah. That's fine.
It was very scary for her, but also,
I think, quite frustrating.
Having armed police turn up at your
door, pointing Tasers in your face -
for that to become a normal
occurrence is really quite scary.
What's happened today?
Because of the nature of the calls,
we have to come every time.
No, that's fine.
Did you have any hope at that,
at that time that this would end,
or did you begin to think,
"I just need to
"I'm just going to have
to live like this?"
Um, I guess I didn't really see
the light at the end of the tunnel.
Especially all the messages about
telling me to go kill myself.
My kids'd be better off.
I got to the point of being like,
"Maybe they will be better off
if I'm dead."
I got a phone call
from Megan's place of work
asking me if I'd heard of her.
She hadn't turned up for work
that morning.
I decided I was going to just go
straight over to the house.
I let myself in
and opened the kitchen door
and Megan was in the corner,
on the floor.
Um, wrapped up in
the foetal position, just
And she was shaking.
She was visibly shaking,
but there was no noise.
And when she did speak,
she just looked at me and said,
"I can't do it any more, Mum."
"I can't take any more.
I can't do it any more."
As a mum
..I felt a failure.
I couldn't protect her.
And that's your job, right?
That's what parents are meant to do.
I never felt so useless, honestly.
I remember just sat on the floor
crying. I was like, "I can't do it."
My God. I'm sorry. No.
No, you don't have to apologise.
It shows you how insidious
and dangerous stalking can be.
Yeah, exactly.
When Megan gave her statement,
she was very concise.
She was very clear.
She had the evidence collated.
She knew what had happened,
on what date.
It was quite clear that she was
walking me through
what had happened.
Dugdale's an interesting character.
So he comes across
quite sort of childlike, almost,
and a bit vulnerable.
So that's kind of how he presented
to me that he, you know,
he didn't really know
what was going on
and he's, you know,
almost a bit, like, bumbling.
He didn't really have
a good free recall
of what had been happening.
Megan didn't really have
any clear enemies or anything.
She's just a regular girl,
so it's difficult.
It was difficult to try
and work out
what the motive might be, for sure.
The turning point
was the mobile phone work
that was done on Megan's phone.
Because she was receiving
all these "no caller ID" calls,
there's ways that we can find out
who the number is,
what the number is
that's calling her.
So they've done this phone work.
You still don't know
who the stalker is.
At what point do they tell you
who the anonymous calls
are connected to?
Yeah, I remember I was at work.
And Emily just kind of
went through what they found.
They obviously used software
to track that
What phone that came from.
And it was Dan's.
All of them?
Yeah. Every single one.
Every single one was Dan? Yeah. OK.
I remember just bursting into tears
and it wasn't because I was upset.
I was just unbelievably livid.
Um But I just started crying.
Emily, the police lady,
was absolutely amazing.
Megan and I were together
and she rang
and she literally said,
"We've got him.
"He's admitted it."
And it was just like
SHE EXHALES
During questioning,
I presented the evidence to him
that we'd found on his mobile phone,
and at that point he pretty much
admitted the whole lot.
But also, he was he was saying
that the reason he'd done it
was because he still wanted
to be close to Megan,
even though the relationship
had ended.
So it felt quite sinister
at the same time
as feeling as
a bit of an accomplishment.
He was bailed at that point,
with bail conditions,
not to contact her,
because at that point
it could go either way.
He could leave her alone and stop,
or it could escalate the behaviour.
So it's a dangerous time
at that point.
I just don't understand how anyone
could do it to anyone anyway.
But for someone that has put,
you know, me through so much
the last few years, you know,
whether it's financially,
emotionally, physically,
and then to do this when I'd
given him that grace at the end.
So I was just absolute fuming that
he had the audacity
to do what he did.
I felt really, really angry.
For me, the red flags
would probably be
the fact that Dan didn't
want to move out at all.
He pulled on the strings
and she said,
"You can stay until you
find somewhere."
And that's when
..it all started ramping up
with the stalking.
So before it went to court,
I ended up moving
just so I could feel that kind of
I can walk down the street
without having to look
behind my back all the time.
So you really
You really moved for safety?
Yeah. I, yeah,
I moved my kids' schools,
I moved where I work.
Just completely
Just moved our lives out of the area
so there was no risk.
It's still obviously
a nerve-racking time.
You don't know
what's going to happen.
It certainly has its challenges
as a crime to get a conviction.
It's not always straightforward
and clear-cut.
What was it like
to go back in there and face him?
I just remember being mad
because he wouldn't even look at me.
And I was like, you know,
looking at him being like,
"You should look at me after
everything that you've done,"
like, you should apologise.
I was, in a way, grateful
that he at least accepted
the fact that he was guilty of it,
so it didn't have to go to trial.
I was grateful that obviously
he got the custodial sentence.
So his sentence was what?
They gave him three years,
eight months,
to serve half inside a prison
then the rest on licence.
And when you reflect back,
what are you proud about yourself
from this experience?
Yeah. Well, I'm proud
that I'm still here.
That's big.
Mm-hm.
She amazes me every day.
But she was just so determined
that if one thing come out of it,
then it would be to try and help
other people see the red flags
and to get out sooner.
Dan was in prison for 23 months.
He's now out. Yeah.
How do you feel? I kind of knew
Obviously, knew it was coming.
I think I've felt calmer about it
than I thought I would back then,
anyway.
But I do hope any woman
he comes into contact with
in, like, kind of any
kind of relationship manner
just is careful, because I don't
I don't think you can change
all that behaviour
that he kind of showed
consistently.
I don't like the fact he's out.
And yes,
we have restraining orders.
It's a piece of paper.
That's not going to stop him
knocking on the door
if he really wants to.
God help him if he turns up.
I'm actually shocked.
At the very end of our conversation,
Megan said, "I'm here.
That's enough."
And that to me was a reflection
of everything
that she's gone through,
everything she's had to fight
through in order to be here.
That's something that is
going to stay with me,
knowing that she is here,
and she's here
because of her resilience
and her bravery.
I'll never forget that.