We often joke about awful Tinder dates, and if you’ve dabbled on the app you’ll have a story of your own, but this is just horrific.
That’s 23-year-old Molly McLaren up top with former boyfriend Joshua Stimpson, a 25-year-old she met on Tinder.
The pair started dating back in November 2016, but split four months later. They continued to have an on and off again romance until June 17, at which point Molly finally put an end to things.
Unfortunately this is where the wheels really come off, because Joshua didn’t take the news very well. Below from the Telegraph:
In the intervening days, the warehouse worker posted photos and derogatory comments on Facebook about the University of Kent student and part-time barmaid.
Ms McLaren had blocked Stimpson on social media, but learnt of his comments and reported the posts to police on June 22.
The previous day, Ms McLaren had told a relative she feared Stimpson would hurt her. Describing him as “manipulative and turning nasty”, she said: “I am actually scared about what he might do. I’m scared he might hurt me. I don’t know how on edge he is.”
12 days after calling things off, McLaren went to gym. So did Stimpson, and she confronted him about whether or not he was following her.
She sent a WhatsApp message to a group chat at 11:02 AM – “Feel like I’m f—— looking over my shoulder all the time” – and left the gym shortly afterwards, walking to her car:
Prosecutor Philip Bennetts QC said as she walked to her car, CCTV footage showed Stimpson waiting for her in his vehicle and then begin to tail her. He left his car, walked quickly to hers and yanked the door open as Ms McLaren screamed…
During the killing, Benjamin Morton, a witness, tried to pull Stimpson off Ms McLaren as she screamed.
Mr Morton later told police Stimpson was “continuously” stabbing Ms McLaren, mainly in the neck area. He added: “It was like a frenzy, he was doing it again and again.”
I suppose Tinder is like life, in that you never really know if the person you’re talking to is a maniac, but mental health is not something the app asks about or offers assistance with.
There are differing takes on what happens when an account is reported for abusive or threatening behaviour, but some say that the app has become so popular that they have a computer program that analyses a large majority of reports.
Here’s the Tinder Safety page, but their obligation stops at banning an account.
Stimpson admits manslaughter but denies murder, which is interesting considering that he was arrested at the scene covered in blood. He had previously told a work colleague that he suffered from bipolar disorder, so it appears his defence will be based around that.
Proceed with caution, Tinder friends.
[source:telegraph]
