Social Media Murders S01E03 The Murder of Molly McLaren
Social Media Murders S01E03 The Murder of Molly McLaren
Exploring the case of Molly McLaren, a 23 year-old woman who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend Joshua Stimpson in 2018. Insight into a relationship, which began after meeting on Tinder, was ended by Molly following a few months of dating as Joshua grew more controlling.
Exploring the case of Molly McLaren, a 23 year-old woman who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend Joshua Stimpson in 2018. Insight into a relationship, which began after meeting on Tinder, was ended by Molly following a few months of dating as Joshua grew more controlling.
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CreativityTranscript
00:00You know, that boy that I started speaking to when I was, like, in a bad way, we carried
00:14on speaking, and I finally got to meet him.
00:44Joshua Stimson launched a brutal and frenzied attack on Molly McLaren, stabbing and slashing
01:08at her more than 50 times. She tried to move across to the passenger seat but could not
01:13escape. I had a call from one of my editors saying that something was going on at Chatham
01:20Dockside. So I jumped straight in my car, did the two-minute drive. I'm here live at
01:27Chatham Dockside where a woman's reportedly been stabbed in the throat. Witnesses say
01:32they saw a man in a white vest who was covered in blood. It was very much an active crime
01:39scene. Forensics were there. You could see the car. There was blood up the windows. It
01:45was clear she was still inside, and it was at that point that we realized just how serious
01:49this was. This was a young woman murdered in broad daylight. Molly was probably the
02:16happiest person I've ever met. She always made me laugh. She was always up for a good time.
02:21Molly is eating her burger, and now she's laughing. There's nobody I don't think that's
02:28ever met her that never liked her. This is what you call friendship. Look, do you know what? No
02:34one gives a P back on a night out unless they're dedicated. Dedicated. And also wicked. She was
02:43just the person that you relied on if you were having a bad day. She'd always cheer you up. Life
02:49and soul of the party. You just did it. She did it. She was on all of the platforms, Facebook,
02:57Snapchat, Instagram. She was constantly uploading videos of her running or doing sport exercise,
03:03that kind of thing. I get to the same bit every day where I feel like I'm lagging. Everyone gets
03:09that bit. Just got a picture. It is not pretty. She wanted to go into personal training and she
03:19had a massive interest in nutrition, all that kind of stuff. She was an incredibly beautiful girl.
03:29Yeah, she probably could have met somebody in a pub or club or something, but Tinder at the time,
03:35it was fairly new and everyone was meeting people on there. Josh and Molly both matched on Tinder.
03:43He was, I guess, her type. Dark hair, quite keen interest in the gym.
03:59I think they just, well, she fancied him initially and obviously the connection that they had. I think he was someone probably a bit different to who she'd dated before.
04:23Oh, you know that boy? I finally got to meet him. Literally seen him nearly every day for the past
04:29well over a week now. I do remember their honeymoon phase being, you know, really good fun.
04:43She was just really excited and I hadn't seen her like that before and she was genuinely,
04:48you know, in a really happy place. She definitely thought she loved him,
04:57especially at the beginning part.
05:09Molly stabbed and killed in broad daylight. The man accused of her murder appeared in court.
05:15Joshua Stimpson, her former boyfriend from Walden near Rochester, was remanded in custody.
05:27He came in, he sat down, he seemed quite comfortable, easy to talk to. Yeah, he came across as a nice guy.
05:41He once said to Molly that he'd not had a girlfriend before she was his first girlfriend.
05:47She actually felt a little bit sorry for him that maybe he was a bit lonely,
05:53whereas she wasn't. She was looking for love but he seemed to be looking not just for love but just
06:01being wanted by someone.
06:05Josh seemed to prefer to come here rather than Molly and him go to where he lived.
06:12We used to share a beer, talk about football, blah, blah, blah, and in the early days we had no reason to believe that there was anything amiss with him.
06:27One psychiatrist's report suggested when Joshua Stimpson killed her, he was suffering from a mental condition that resulted in him losing control.
06:36Therefore, he was guilty of manslaughter and not murder.
06:39Joshua Stimpson was charged with murder. He admitted to the killing and the issue therefore in the case was
06:50not did he kill but what was his state of mind at the time of the killing.
06:57I got really annoyed the other day because I oversaw a message from a girl like asking him to go bowling and I got the right arse
07:04thinking that it was a date and then it turns out it was his friend and now he thinks I'm a psycho.
07:11I think the connection between Josh and Molly was the fact that they both had some sort of mental health problem.
07:19Molly suffered with anxiety and had bulimia. She wrote a couple of blogs on social media
07:27which were really powerful and insanely brave to write. It helped her and it was massively helping other people. Even reading them was such an inspiration.
07:39Josh had said that he had bipolar. Molly had been quite open with her struggles with anxiety.
07:45So I felt like they were drawn on an emotional level and maybe that's why their relationship took off.
07:50He claimed to be bipolar. It was a shock but you know at that time Molly had her issues and we thought okay well maybe it's a good match because she had issues, he's bipolar.
08:09We thought maybe they could help each other.
08:17I first saw Joshua Stimson at the request of the Crown Prosecution Service some months after the killing of Molly.
08:23The psychiatric defence that he was putting forward was that he was a man with a mental health problem.
08:30at the request of the Crown Prosecution Service
08:32some months after the killing of Molly,
08:35the psychiatric defense that he was putting forward
08:38was that he was suffering from
08:40some form of psychiatric condition.
08:43He had spoken about suffering
08:45from bipolar affective disorder,
08:48and there was also a suggestion
08:50that he had an abnormal personality.
08:54And both of those conditions could reduce
08:57a charge of murder to one of manslaughter.
09:09Molly started to identify that Josh was maybe a bit
09:16controlling when she was quite busy
09:18with her dissertation and her exams
09:20and he would just turn up uninvited.
09:24And he was quite persuasive that
09:26I'll just come and sit on the bed
09:28whilst you sit on your laptop
09:29and don't mind me, I'm just gonna be around.
09:32And that was a little bit strange.
09:38He gave up his job and she was absolutely livid
09:43that he'd done that.
09:44He'd done it because he wanted to spend more time with her.
09:51She did feel really suffocated.
09:54She just wanted a bit of space
09:56and I think that probably was one of the signs
09:59that something's not quite right.
10:02Molly said, I'm not sure I feel the same
10:06about Josh as I did.
10:08She seemed to be getting cold feet
10:10and decided that it wasn't for her.
10:21You know, they met on an internet dating site.
10:24Do you actually know that what they've written
10:26on that profile is actually true?
10:30And in this case, it wasn't.
10:43Behind the smiling face, Joshua Stimpson
10:46was an obsessive and controlling boyfriend
10:49who ferociously stabbed Molly McLaren to death
10:53just 12 days after she broke off
10:55their seven month relationship.
11:03Molly finished the relationship.
11:06He kept bombarding her with messages
11:09and she took him back.
11:13It was easier to take him back than not.
11:17He'd managed to convince her that actually
11:20he wasn't the problem, that her mental health was the issue
11:25because she wasn't happy with herself
11:26and actually it wasn't anything to do with him.
11:29He actively encouraged her to go and see her GP
11:32and speak about her anxiety
11:34and I think that was really manipulative behavior.
11:38It just didn't sit right at all.
11:50The first time I met Josh was at a family party.
11:55Molly, she was doing what Molly did
11:57and just was enjoying herself.
12:02He didn't join in.
12:03It was like he couldn't relax.
12:07The evening ended and he just walked on ahead of us,
12:10wouldn't walk with us.
12:16I was taken to the hospital.
12:19I was still awake and my phone went and it was Molly
12:22and, can you come to our room, Josh is kicking off.
12:27I went in, Josh started saying, look at this, look at this,
12:31I've been filming her, look at this, look at this.
12:35Molly said, he's just taking films of me,
12:38he's trying to get something on me.
12:42He was having a go at her for having a good time
12:45and trying to record her.
12:48I think that's when he started to build her reaction.
12:55It felt like he was trying to build leverage,
12:57something to hold against her.
13:01She was really worried about the conversations
13:03that they'd had in private
13:04and she was worried that he would share them.
13:09They were arguing more.
13:12That's not what she wanted from a relationship.
13:18I think she was just worried that if there's a bit of an argument
13:21between them, what's he going to do?
13:24Joshua used his bipolar affective disorder
13:27to put pressure on Molly
13:30in order to get her to focus entirely on him.
13:35A significant warning sign,
13:37but, of course, Molly wanted to support him
13:40because she thought that he was going through a very difficult period.
13:44She didn't want him to be unhappy,
13:46but it just felt like he had to be her centre of attention at all times.
14:07They'd already booked the holiday,
14:08so she said that she was going to go and see how things were going.
14:13She was going to see how she felt when she was there
14:15and also when she got back.
14:28She actually messaged me saying that she had an anxiety attack.
14:34All these things, you know, being worried about upsetting him,
14:36hurting his feelings,
14:38but also the fact that she kind of probably felt a bit stuck.
14:41And all that stress, it was just too much.
14:47I just remember when she got back and she said, you know,
14:50it's over.
14:56She obviously reached out to me and told me that they'd broken up
14:59and she felt quite relieved that she'd sort of done it,
15:02which, you know, that's a good outcome.
15:12He started, again, bombarding her with text messages, calls,
15:18take me back, take me back.
15:24Exactly a repetition of the first time,
15:27but she was so much stronger and she said, no, I'm not going to.
15:33When most relationships end,
15:35there can be intense feelings felt by either or both parties
15:41and usually people work through them.
15:44There is a small minority where, when a relationship ends,
15:49things become extremely toxic and potentially dangerous.
15:54In Joshua's case, he was undoubtedly upset,
15:58but that turned fairly quickly into anger and rage.
16:06Molly McLaren suffered injuries to her face, neck and hands.
16:11One brave onlooker tried to help,
16:13slamming the car door on Stimpson's leg,
16:16but Joshua's wife, Molly McLaren,
16:18said she had no idea what had happened.
16:21She tried slamming the car door on Stimpson's leg,
16:24but Joshua Stimpson would not stop.
16:37Molly messaged me saying, you know, he's turned a bit nasty.
16:47She showed me the images of the kind of things he was posting.
16:50It was really personal, like, oh, you know,
16:52you're lying to your family, your mum doesn't even know the truth.
16:55Saying all this nasty, manipulative, evil stuff,
16:58he clearly wasn't doing it because he wanted to show
17:01how much he loved her.
17:02He was doing it, like, for the complete opposite reason.
17:15Josh became obsessed with what Molly was doing,
17:18who she was with and what she was up to,
17:20and as a way of keeping tabs on her,
17:22he roped in another woman who he'd previously matched with
17:25on Tinder to try and help him find out
17:28exactly what Molly was doing through social media.
17:35People who are enlisted into helping stalkers
17:38often don't understand the full extent of what's happening
17:42and the impact it's having on the victim.
17:44They're lied to and told a very different story,
17:47some fake narrative about what that person has done.
18:06Josh was friend using the term, I love a good stalk,
18:10in terms of having a look and following someone,
18:13being a bit nosy online.
18:15Very different to actual stalking,
18:17which is extremely dangerous behaviour,
18:19causes that fear of violence in the victim,
18:23in this case Molly, causes alarm and distress.
18:32Social media allows a potential stalker
18:35to track an individual without having to physically
18:40get into close contact with them.
18:43And then enables the stalking behaviour,
18:46which can culminate in violence.
18:59I was just flicking through Facebook and straight away saw
19:04something that had just been literally just put on by Josh.
19:08And the only reason that I'd seen it
19:10was because he'd tagged Joe in it.
19:13So I rang Molly straight away and she immediately,
19:16her reaction was, oh my God, Claire, what's he done?
19:20Molly said, Mum, give me your phone.
19:22I gave her my phone and she deleted him
19:26so I couldn't see what was on there.
19:29She said, he really wants to hurt me
19:31by getting at me through my family.
19:33But there was nothing I didn't know about Molly.
19:37He was dragging up stuff.
19:40He was posting screenshots of texts between the two of them,
19:44so like private conversations they'd had.
19:47It was as if, you know, throughout their relationship
19:50he was gathering ammo to set against her for this time.
19:56It got to the point where she was again getting so anxious,
19:59I said, no, this isn't right.
20:01I said, we've got to approach Facebook
20:03and have it taken down.
20:05So we both contacted Facebook.
20:09Unfortunately, you don't get to speak to any one person.
20:13It's all by messages.
20:15And we did this a couple of times.
20:18Eventually, they took the post down
20:22and said if he continued to do it, they would block him.
20:27Everything went quiet for a little while
20:30and then he started doing it again.
20:35So we then got back in touch with Facebook.
20:38They looked into it, apparently,
20:40and they came back and said, we are not going to block him
20:43because there is nothing really going on with him.
20:46And they said, if he continues to do it,
20:48they would block him.
20:50And they said, if he continues to do it,
20:52they would block him.
20:54And they said, if he continues to do it,
20:56they would block him because there is nothing really
20:59that we can say that he's doing wrong.
21:02When Facebook took down that first post that Molly reported,
21:06they were looking at their code of conduct and saying,
21:08is this something we can't allow?
21:11Further posts met with their code of conduct.
21:15That's because they were looking at those posts in isolation.
21:18They weren't looking at the bigger picture
21:20and the pattern of behaviour that Joshua was displaying,
21:23This was the moment police arrived
21:25at the Dockside Outlet shopping centre car park,
21:28just moments after Joshua Stimpson
21:31stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death in her car.
21:53I came home and I said to Molly, right,
21:55we're going to take this one stage further.
21:57We'll go to the police.
22:00They took us both into a room.
22:04Molly told them all about it.
22:06And they said, right, we need to speak to Josh.
22:10They made the phone call.
22:16He was very cool, very calm, very collected.
22:21He, in fact, came across quite cold.
22:25And the police told him that he must stop what he's doing.
22:30If he didn't stop, they would have to come and arrest him.
22:34And he just kept saying, repeating,
22:38I've done nothing wrong. I've done nothing wrong.
22:41And if you think I have, there's more to come.
22:44And those words still haunt me now.
22:52One psychiatrist's report suggested Joshua Stimpson
22:56was guilty of manslaughter and not murder.
22:59But the prosecution produced a psychiatrist of their own.
23:03He pointed to the premeditated nature of the attack
23:06and said the stalker is always in control.
23:11Molly had applied for a job at a gym close to where we live.
23:16One of our other friends worked there.
23:19And, as she was looking for a job,
23:22she was approached by her friend,
23:25who was a former police officer.
23:29And she said, well, you know,
23:31I'm going to be asking for a job,
23:34and I'm going to be doing a lot of work,
23:36and I'm not going to be doing any of that.
23:39worked there, and almost instantly,
23:43Josh had then started going to that gym,
23:46and he was going in the morning,
23:49he was going again in the afternoon,
23:51almost as if he was trying to look for her,
23:54but we'd never quite worked out how he knew
23:57that she would have been working there.
24:10She changed her name on Facebook and Instagram,
24:14and I guess she probably believed that on every platform,
24:17she was kind of now safe.
24:27She set up another account on Instagram,
24:30and it was all about her fitness
24:32and supporting other people doing it,
24:34giving people advice,
24:36and it was all really positive, uplifting stuff.
24:38I think it was probably her way of just being like,
24:41let's just forget all of that stuff that's going on
24:43and let's just focus on stuff that I'm passionate about.
24:48Molly posted on Instagram she was on this new journey,
24:51and the same afternoon, he was caught on CCTV
24:54in a nearby Asda where he bought a kitchen knife,
24:57the knife he used to murder her.
25:09I got a message from Molly,
25:11and it was a picture of Josh with a pigeon,
25:14and he'd put the caption as one week single
25:17and already chatting up the birds,
25:19and she sent me a message saying
25:21that it completely made her evening.
25:23At the time, I'd celebrated with Molly,
25:26because if he was posting, you know, oh, I'm single,
25:29it was a sign that he was going to move on.
25:32Looking back now, it feels like a trap.
25:35You think I'm gone, but actually I'm not.
25:57We'd gone out for dinner to celebrate
25:59Molly enrolling on a PT course.
26:01One of our other friends had been promoted
26:03and we had a lot to celebrate,
26:05so we went to the Ship and Trade in Dockside.
26:09That evening, Josh had arranged to meet another woman
26:12he'd met on a dating site.
26:14Molly posted on Instagram that she was going out that evening.
26:18Shortly afterwards, Josh texted his date with a change of plan.
26:28Molly had gone to the bar to order her food
26:31and come back and she looked like she'd seen a ghost.
26:36She said that she'd seen Josh.
26:45At first, Molly kind of went into shock.
26:48It was like a, oh, my gosh, why is he here?
26:53I'd tried to comfort her and say, well, if he's going on a first date,
26:57he's probably picked somewhere you've never been.
27:01We'd had a bit of a laugh and a joke with some of our friends,
27:04but you could see that she was still really uneasy.
27:07So she made her excuses and she got home for Love Island.
27:12We'd later seen on her Instagram
27:15that she'd posted a picture of where she was,
27:18but at that point she didn't have Josh on social media.
27:23I saw her in the morning.
27:25She was up bright and early.
27:27She was going off to the gym, as she often did.
27:32And I thought that she was a bit of a pervert,
27:35but then I realised that she'd got a boyfriend.
27:40She'd been on a date with a guy,
27:43and he'd got a girlfriend, and she'd been going to the gym.
27:46up bright and early. She was going off to the gym, as she often did, and I think she
27:52felt she needed to go and work off what she'd been through.
27:59We had a little chat, told each other we loved each other, which whenever Molly, whenever
28:10I talked to Molly, we had a little saying. I would say love you, Molly would say love
28:17you more, and I would say love you mostest, and that would then stop. But we had that
28:24saying, we said that, that was kind of one of the last things I said to her.
28:39On the 29th, it's apparent that Joshua Stimson was following Molly. Their car registrations
28:48were observed in the same area at the same time. Where he followed her from, one doesn't
28:56know, but one does know that he was following her.
29:06The court heard, at 10.06, Molly arrives at Pure Gym at Chatham Dockside. At 10.14,
29:13Josh enters the car park.
29:24Joshua Stimson goes into the gym, and he waits beside the door to the room in which
29:32she's in. He then goes in.
29:42Molly sent me a message with a picture of Josh saying that he'd turned up at the gym.
29:55My instant reaction was something's not right. He'd turned up at dinner the night before,
30:00now he'd turned up at the gym.
30:06And she went, Mum, he's just turned up. He's just turned up at the gym. And I said, you've
30:12got to be kidding. She said, how would he know I was here? I said, just ignore him and
30:18just come home. Just come straight home.
30:25They speak, and she asks him whether he's following her.
30:44My instant flicker was straight to social media. So I said to her, you know, do you
30:49have your location services on anything? How does he know you're there? She was also chatting
30:54to the guys in the group chat as well, and everyone was of the same opinion. She needed
30:57to just leave. You know, don't chat to him.
31:10He goes down the stairs from the gym and waits for a while, turns to go back into the gym,
31:20and then obviously changes his mind.
31:33Josh gets into his car and starts driving slowly around the car park. He's waiting for
31:38Molly to leave.
31:48I'd said to her to just go to the car and just go home. And that's what she was trying
31:54to do.
32:06CCTV shows Joshua Stimpson's car driving very slowly. He's obviously watching where she's
32:17going, where her car is. It's when she starts to get into the car that Joshua Stimpson gets
32:31out and he attacks her.
32:36He yanked the door of her car open, jumped in and started stabbing her.
32:41He stabbed and killed in broad daylight. Emergency services were on the scene within
32:49minutes, but Molly could not be saved.
33:02It would normally take Molly about 15 minutes to get back, and sort of half an hour went
33:08by and she wasn't home. So I texted her and I heard nothing back. And I texted her again
33:14and just said, if you're stuck in traffic or something, pull over. Just let me know
33:18you're on your way. Nothing, nothing.
33:24And then I got a text from one of her good friends saying, have you seen there's something
33:30happening at Chatham Dockside? Well, I just immediately went cold. I just thought, that's
33:39Molly. Something's happened to Molly.
33:45I remember thinking, it can't possibly be Molly. There's absolutely got to be some kind
33:51of mistake. She messaged me. She told me she was going home. One of the guys that we worked
33:56with had pulled up Snapchat and seen Molly's location. It showed her as still being in
34:03Dockside. She'd never made it home.
34:11One witness tells me the lady desperately tried to alert people in the car park by screaming
34:16and beeping her horn. She suffered stab wounds and died at the scene.
34:24Witnesses arriving at the scene found Josh pacing up and down by Molly's car. He was
34:29covered in blood and he made no attempt to flee.
34:34Having killed her, Joshua Stimpson stood by the car and waited for the police and then
34:41he was arrested. He had achieved what he wanted to do. There was no need for him to run because
34:49there was no effort for him to get it.
34:54Well I was on a drill ship, a hundred miles off the coast of Senegal. I got an email from
35:01Jo that said, call me straight away. And I thought, at the time, I thought, Christ, what's
35:08that? So I got my phone and went up to the bridge deck and I called Jo and she said,
35:15Josh has murdered Molly.
35:19I screamed so much and my body was shaking and she didn't even have to tell me who'd
35:27done it.
35:37I think one of the questions everyone asked was how Josh knew what Molly was doing that
35:41day. It's possible he could have guessed where she was going, but it's also possible based
35:46on his recent stalking habits that he could have tracked her through social media.
35:53Molly did use Snapchat quite a lot, posting little videos to people or you can share them
35:57to your whole network. But at the time there was a new function. It would show where you
36:04are. You would literally be able to see a map and zoom in and you could see the little
36:07character.
36:11Great functionality for sharing and being social, but really dangerous in the wrong
36:15hands. Tools like Snap Maps and social media sites are often used in harassment and cyber
36:21stalking cases.
36:24I don't understand how else he would have been able to find her without social media.
36:28The day that Molly was killed, her location services were switched on, on Snapchat and
36:35using the Snap Map feature. Whether Josh used that to find out that she was leaving
36:42the house, I guess we'll never know.
36:58Joshua Stimpson sobbed as he entered the dock here at Maidstone Crown Court today. He pleaded
37:04not guilty to the murder of Molly McLaren on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
37:10When I saw him, I was quite shocked because I'd seen so many pictures of this man, you
37:15know, he was attractive, he seemed quite slim. But when I actually saw him in the flesh,
37:22he was in a grey tracksuit, he looked a lot chunkier than the pictures.
37:28I remember thinking it's not the same man because he had put on loads of weight, his
37:37hair was a completely different colour, his beard was a completely different colour.
37:44He looked totally emotionless and I needed to make eye contact with him, but he refused
37:53to make eye contact and he just sat there looking like nothing, showed no remorse, showed
38:05no emotion whatsoever.
38:09Day by day he was being shipped to the court by a security service and they were wearing
38:15like medical uniforms. The prosecuting barrister, Philip Bennett, approached the judge and said
38:23look, we're not having this because it's sending a subliminal message to the jury that somehow
38:31he's got a medical problem. From then on, when he was delivered to the courtroom, they
38:37had their proper uniforms on.
38:41During the trial at Maidstone Crown Court, 26-year-old Joshua Stimpson from Walden had
38:47admitted manslaughter, claiming diminished responsibility but denied murder. He claimed
38:53he was bipolar and the court heard he had a personality disorder, something the defence
38:59argued meant he wasn't fully in control of his actions when he attacked Molly.
39:06The challenge in this case was to prove at the time of the killing that the defendant's
39:12state of mind was such that in fact he knew what he was doing and that his responsibility
39:19was not diminished.
39:22So I was asked to see Joshua Stimpson at the request of the Crown Prosecution Service.
39:29The defence that he was putting forward was that he was suffering from some form of psychiatric
39:35condition at the time that he killed Molly.
39:42One of the aspects of the case which was a theme throughout was that Joshua Stimpson
39:50said that he had bipolar.
40:00I would just say any time they maybe had a disagreement, that came up and you must
40:05spend time with me because I'm having an episode.
40:12My diagnosis was that he was not suffering from bipolar affective disorder and did not
40:17reach the threshold for a personality disorder. In other words, he didn't have a medical defence
40:24to reduce to murder, to manslaughter.
40:29He told Molly that he'd had bipolar and it, you know, that's not something that you think
40:34people lie about.
40:40Joshua Stimpson's case, the separation of his parents and his feelings of abandonment
40:46by his mother, would undoubtedly lay the groundwork for some of the development of that abnormal
40:53personality. There were some narcissistic aspects to his personality. He was very conscious
40:58of his own appearance, but would not by any means afford him a defence to murder.
41:08We found out in the courtroom he never had bipolar, but I think he had a severe character
41:14defect. I think he needed to feel loved, he needed to feel supported, but to try and rest
41:26your case on him being bipolar was a complete mistake by the defence.
41:35During the trial, we found out he'd had several girlfriends. He'd been rejected by them and
41:42made threats and done similar kinds of things to them.
41:48Two ex-girlfriends gave evidence in court. One testified that after they'd split up,
41:54he'd posted abusive messages about her on social media. He also posted a threat under
42:01one of her holiday photos.
42:03It was chilling because it was then that we realised that he had done this before.
42:11One night she was out at a party and received a message from him saying that there was something
42:16waiting for her at home, and when she got back she found all of the tyres on her car
42:20had been slashed.
42:23She went to Staffordshire Police and Josh was given a warning. A police officer sent
42:27him a text and a voicemail telling him to stop.
42:32They had gone to the police, but because there was no physical evidence to say that it was
42:36him, it hadn't been logged. So there was no history there on him at all.
42:56One of the more surprising aspects of the trial was the testimony of a woman who Josh
43:00had reached out to, to try and help him find out exactly what Molly was doing through social
43:05media. The girl had been contacted by Josh on a dating app in 2016, and though they never
43:12met, she considered him to be one of her best mates.
43:19The judge asked, did she understand what she was doing? Her answers appeared to demonstrate
43:25that she really wasn't aware of the impact of what she was doing upon what happened to
43:34Molly.
43:43Today Molly's devastated family were in court as a jury took less than four hours to find
43:48Stimpson guilty of murder, and a judge sentenced him to life in prison with a minimum term
43:54of 26 years.
43:56The verdict has brought us a small measure of comfort, but it seems that nothing will
44:01take away the pain, or allow us to come to terms with our Molly being taken from us.
44:06We are serving a lifetime of pain, anguish and loss.
44:11Right Molly, what are you going to write first?
44:26Happy birthday to you!
44:31That's not it! That's not it!
44:37I miss Molly. I can't put into words how much I miss her. I miss her relationship, but I
44:47miss what she was going to be, what she was going to do with her life.
44:57I can't imagine what she went through in that car. I just wish I could have done more as
45:05a father.
45:10I just wish I'd never told her to come home. I wish I'd told her to go and be with other
45:16people, not to be on her own, to be with others. I don't hold myself responsible, don't get
45:23me wrong. There's no one responsible but him.
45:37She was the light of her lives.
45:53She was the light of her lives.