Stalker who accused business owners of affairs, murder bids, slashing her tyres and poisoning her cat in 'unrelenting' years-long campaign is jailed

A social media consultant who stalked two business owners and launched an 'unrelenting' campaign of harassment by posting offensive and false accusations online was today jailed for two years and four months. Sam Wall, 55, made a series of fake claims about her 'totally innocent' victims, accusing them of having extra-marital affairs, trying to kill her, breaking windows at her home, slashing her car tyres and even poisoning her cat. In one particularly offensive post she even falsely branded a businessman a sexual predator online. Both had either met Wall fleetingly at conferences or simply connected with her over social media, yet she inexplicably targeted them for years. She posted the malicious lies on LinkedIn, X and Facebook, to her 30,000 followers, in rants that were sometimes more than 21,000 words long. One victim – motivational speaker Brad Burton, 52, who met Wall for just two minutes when he posed for a selfie with her at a business event - said he was driven to the brink and even contemplated suicide because of the prolific 'trashing' of his reputation online. Wall's own posts claimed Mr Burton was using his business to destroy and gaslight her – at one stage she even falsely claimed he had been arrested and sent to jail for harassment. In reality, he lost revenue and his company collapsed into insolvency because of her 'relentless' attacks, which included falsely labelling him a sex offender and bully. Another victim – tech entrepreneur Naomi Timperley, 53, who also only saw Wall in passing at two business events – was subjected to similar 'distressing' messages. Wall even falsely claimed to have attempted suicide because of Ms Timperley's apparent behaviour. Ms Timperley said she and her husband and children had been left 'scared' and constantly looking over their shoulders because of Wall's 'hideous' harassment. Jailing Wall, who has been diagnosed with a chronic delusional mental illness, to 28 months imprisonment, Judge Neil Usher told her she had unleashed an 'unrelenting barrage of abuse' against her victims which was designed to 'maximise fear and distress.' 'The breadth and scale of your online campaign…is breathtaking,' the judge, sitting at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court, said. 'This was a deliberate and calculated campaign of online stalking of the most egregious kind.' The judge also made Wall, of Cheadle, Stockport, Cheshire, the subject of an indefinite restraining order. The court heard that Wall admitted three offences – two of stalking and one of posting false messages about Mr Burton and Ms Timperley - at a previous hearing in November. They were committed between January 2019 and July 2023, but the Mail has spoken to several other victims, not part of the court case, who were also targeted by Wall up to four years earlier. One woman, personal assistant Lauren Dale, 31, said she was stalked by Wall around 2015 and 2016. She sent Ms Dale gifts, such as cakes and plants, was spotted at bus stops close to her place of work, sent abusive Tweets accusing her of sleeping with her boss, and even contacted her clients to bad mouth her. Like Mr Burton and Ms Timperley, Wall also bizarrely accused Ms Dale of poisoning her cat. Ms Dale said she believed Wall had also been stalking her boss at the digital agency where they worked and had targeted her in spite, after she once turned Wall away from their office. The harassment became so bad that it forced her off social media and to switch jobs. Ms Dale eventually reported Wall to Greater Manchester Police, in March 2016, after she sent her a death threat online which said: 'RIP LAUREN DALE, TICK TOCK.' The court heard officers served Wall with a formal warning, known as a police information notice, and Ms Dale blocked her on social media. She didn't hear from her again but contacted Mr Burton and Ms Timperley after reading about their ordeals at Wall's hands on LinkedIn earlier this year. Today Ms Dale, of Oldham, said the fact that Wall had been jailed was 'good enough for now,' but she added: 'Whether it stops her in the future…I hope so. I just hope she gets some mental help where she is.' Mr Burton and Ms Timperley both also said they were 'relieved' that the judge had made an example of Wall and sent her to prison. Ms Timperley said: 'It was important for Brad and myself that she received a custodial sentence, so that she understood the consequences of her actions. 'It's been a very, very long process to get to today and incredibly difficult. But I do have a sense of relief.' Earlier, Nicholas Flanagan, prosecuting, told the court that the first and only time Mr Burton met Wall was in January 2019 at a networking event at Aston Villa Football Club. He said he had a brief two-minute chat with her, engaging in 'small talk about how exciting the forthcoming day would be.' He also posed for a selfie with her and another delegate. But some months later, at the end of 2019, colleagues told Mr Burton about posts being made by Wall online. At first he tried to ignore them, but as they continued, he sent a legal letter, urging her to stop, but Wall refused. 'The attacks then intensified,' Mr Flanagan said. 'The defendant claimed that Mr Burton had poisoned her cat, had continually called her and made claims that he was having affairs. This was particularly distressing, as Mr Burton is happily married. 'Further attacks by the defendant alleged he was facing a custodial sentence – as well as being a sex offender.' Wall was eventually arrested, in September 2022, and denied wrongdoing and repeated her claims that Mr Burton was harassing her and trying to destroy her life. She was bailed but, when that expired a month later, she re-started her attacks. 'This included claims that Mr Burton was in prison, and that he had a psychopathic twin brother who was covering for him whilst he was in jail,' Mr Flanagan added. Wall also posted fake messages which claimed Ms Timperley had also targeted her and warned: 'Time to take criminal action with you all. You won't like it.' Mr Flanagan said: 'Ms Timperley took this as a direct threat and it left her terrified.' Burton, a married father of three, broke down as he read a victim impact statement to the court which outlined how he and his family had been left traumatised by Wall's actions. 'For four plus years, her relentless campaign of lies, harassment and character assassination has dominated every corner of our existence, mentally, emotionally, financially, and digitally,' he said. 'Her actions have damaged my career and invaded every aspect of my personal life. 'The stress, sleepless nights, dread have pushed me to one of the darkest periods of my life.' Ms Timperley also described her 'peace being stolen' as messages came in on her mobile phone 'until even silence felt unsafe.' 'For over two and a half years, I was hunted through hashtags, chased through timelines, cornered in comment sections, my name dragged through the dirt of digital spaces,' she said. 'The internet was weaponised against me. Used to intimidate, to control, to humiliate. Digital stalking is still stalking. That fear is real, even when the threats are typed, not spoken. That harm is harm whether it's hands or hashtags.' Mr Burton also criticised social media companies, who he claimed had 'failed' to take action or remove Wall's upsetting posts. 'Social media companies need to do better and maybe if they had, we wouldn't all be where we all are today,' he said.