Lyndsey was on a date, when she began to get a really creepy feeling about the man sitting opposite…
Picking up my phone, I opened up a dating app and started swiping through the different profiles.
It wasn’t long before my phone flashed up with a match.
He’s a bit of all right, I thought, while clicking on to the profile of a good-looking, dark-haired man.
His name was Harry, he was 21 and in his third year at university. He listed his interests as the gym, pizza and going to the cinema.
As someone who liked to keep fit too, it sounded as if we would get on well.
But as I always waited for the guy to message first, I started swiping again to see if anyone else caught my eye. I’d just come out of a long-term relationship and was using the app as a way to dip my toe back into the dating pool.
I wasn’t looking for anything too serious and so far, chatting with different guys on the app had taken my mind off my ex-boyfriend.
Suddenly, my phone pinged with a message notification.
Hi Lyndsey, how are you? You look really nice in your pictures, the message read.
Hi Harry, thanks, you’re too kind, I replied.
Messages went back and forth, and talk soon turned to what we were looking for on the app.
I’m not looking for anything serious because I’ve just come out of a long-term relationship, he messaged.
I was relieved we were on the same page.
Me too, I texted back.
He seemed really kind and charming from his messages. Then after two weeks of chatting online, he asked whether I would like to meet up.
Even though I thought he was nice, I wasn’t sure.
‘I think it would be good for you,’ my flatmate, Gavin, said encouragingly.
I had a good feeling about him so I decided to take his advice.
I messaged Harry back and after we added each other on Facebook, we arranged to have a drink in a pub that my friends and I went to regularly.
I’m not familiar with that area. Send me your postcode and I’ll come and pick you up, he messaged.
But I was more comfortable meeting by the bus stop.
OK, I’ll meet you off the bus, he agreed.
On the night of my date, I excitedly put on my favourite top and jeans and then hopped on the bus.
As I jumped off at my stop,
I saw Harry.
‘Hi, nice to meet you finally,’ he smiled, hugging me.
He was just as charming in real life as in his messages, but I could tell he was nervous.
‘Let me buy you a drink,’ he said at the bar.
‘I’ll have a white wine, please,’ I smiled.
We collected our drinks, and then found a table.
‘I don’t usually drink,’ he joked, as he sipped his pint, across the table from me, ‘because I get drunk really easily.’
It was now clear that he was an awkward person.
'I think it would be good for you'
He told me he was from America and his parents were both Indian.
The more he drank, the flirtier he became.
True to his word, he obviously couldn’t handle his drink.
But that didn’t slow down
his drinking.
Out of the corner of my eye,
I spotted my flatmate and his friend at the bar.
I hadn’t told Gavin that I’d be here, so I knew it was a lucky coincidence.
Then Harry sat next to me.
‘I’m having a really good time,’ he said, edging closer.
He’s a bit full-on for my liking,
I thought.
But I didn’t want to be rude.
‘Me too,’ I half-heartedly smiled.
As the night went on, I knew he wasn’t the guy for me, and
I wouldn’t be meeting up with him again.
Checking the time on my phone, it was getting late, so I decided to call it a night.
But in that moment, it was as if a switch had flicked and he was a totally different person.
‘I was under the impression we’d be going back to your flat together,’ he snapped.
As he leant forward, his intimidating behaviour took me by surprise.
Something was telling me to get away from him as quickly
as possible.
‘I’m sorry if there was any miscommunication,’ I apologised.
But he just became more verbally abusive.
‘Why did you lead me on?’ he spat at me.
I was scared Harry would follow me if I walked home on my own, so I walked over towards Gavin.
‘Hey,’ I said, joining him and his friend. ‘I’ve never been happier to see you.’
As I told him what had happened, he looked
around the room.
‘Don’t worry he’s gone,’
he said.
I turned around and the table we were sitting at
was empty.
I felt so relieved.
‘I’ll add this to my list of bad Tinder dates,’ I joked, trying to make light of the situation.
But the truth was, it scared me how quickly Harry had changed.
The next morning, I woke up to lots of messages, all from Harry.
I’m really sorry for my behaviour, the message read.
I really don’t know what came over me.
But my gut told me to keep well away. I didn’t text back but the messages kept on coming.
Would you like to go to breakfast with me? I want
to begin a relationship with you,
I read.
I was confused and scared.
I told you I’m not looking for anything serious. I felt threatened by you last night, I typed back.
You’re a slut. All night you were flirting with me, you’re such a c**ktease, he typed back.
I wasn’t putting up with his abuse so blocked him.
It took me a while to date again, but eventually, I met my boyfriend on an app.
'What would have happened?'
Times passed and one night, I was sitting in my flat with Gavin when we decided to watch a
TV show called Shocking Emergency Calls.
I wasn’t really paying attention when the programme started but I knew it was the episode about a girl who found her flatmate dead – her throat had been slit.
Then suddenly a picture of
a man flickered on the screen and I screeched.
‘Lyndsey, what’s wrong?’
Gavin asked, staring at my horrified face.
‘Don’t you recognise him?’
I gasped, finally finding the words.
‘Is that the guy from the pub?’ he asked.
It was Harry.
Something bad must have happened to him, I thought, thinking he was the victim.
But as I paid attention, I felt
the colour drain from my face.
We listened as the documentary played out the harrowing 999 call that Maxine McGill had made after she found her friend Alice Ruggles on the bathroom floor in the pool of her own blood.
‘Her ex is an absolute psychopath,’ Maxine said, as a picture of Harry flashed up on
the screen.
Harry Dhillon wasn’t the victim.
My Tinder date was a murderer!
I listened in horror to how he had controlled, stalked and then murdered his ex-girlfriend Alice by slitting her throat from ear to ear, after he couldn’t accept that their relationship was over.
At the end of the episode,
I heard how he was found guilty of murder and handed a sentence of at least 22 years in prison
After that I couldn’t get Alice’s murder at the hands of Harry out of my head.
I read all the news reports about the case in horror.
What would have happened if I’d taken him home? I thought.
I had so many questions whizzing around my head.
I have never been so grateful that I paid attention to my gut feeling about him.
I think about Alice all the time and how we were both taken in by his fake, charming persona.
If I had given Harry a second chance and ended up in a relationship with him, I very easily could have been the one found dead by my flatmate.
Lyndsey Smith, 25