The online bodyguard who can keep YOU safe from cyber stalkers
He’s the man who protects female MPs, celebrities and CEOs on the internet. But, as he knows all too well, anyone can be a victim of harrowing abuse from trolls
Cool-heADeD, reassuring and smart, he is the man you want by your side in a crisis. Philip Grindell, the online Bodyguard, is an ex Metropolitan police detective who was called in to protect parliamentarians after the murder of Jo Cox.
The MP for Batley and Spen — mother of two small children — was shot and stabbed on the way to a meeting in her constituency.
In the stormy climate of Brexit, politicians of all stripes were deluged by online abuse and death threats. Grindell’s task was to assess the dangers. The job gave him an insight into the way public figures are targeted online and the especially vitriolic threats directed at women.
But what was once a niche part of police work has been growing and it is not only celebrities at risk: women in all walks of life can find themselves being tracked by an ex-partner, or become the victim of revenge porn. We all use the internet: so the security chief ’s specialist knowledge has lessons for women everywhere.
Today, he heads up Defuse Global, a security company promising high-profile individuals — the celebrities, media personalities and Ceos seeking his help — ‘peace of mind, at home, online and in the public eye’.
The murder of Jo Cox opened up the conversation about abuse directed at politicians, and towards women more generally. Until then, many public figures had kept it a shameful secret.
‘A lot of people seemed to think it was part of their job to take abuse. nobody discussed it,’ says Grindell.
But recently celebrities have been speaking out. Pop singer Billie eilish — whose song, no Time To Die, is the new Bond movie theme — broke down as she collected her Brit award last month, saying she had felt ‘very hated’. eilish, 18, closed her social media accounts because trolling was ‘ruining my life’.
little Mix’s Jesy nelson, 28, says she tried to commit suicide as a result of the relentless nastiness aimed at her online.
on the night little Mix won The X Factor in 2011, the first comment she saw on Facebook read: ‘You are the ugliest thing I have ever seen in my life. You don’t deserve to be in this girl band. You deserve to die.’
At the time Jo Cox was killed, in June 2016, Grindell was working at heathrow, assessing security threats, while studying for a master’s degree in security management, including a dissertation on attacks on politicians.
A few days later, he was called in by neil Basu, the Met’s head of counter-terror policing, and asked to set up the Parliamentary liaison and Investigations Team (PlAIT), a protection unit for MPs. ‘My task was to stop the next Jo Cox,’ he says.
He had no specific experience of online threats but was a senior detective with a track record of investigations into terrorism, murder and people trafficking.
We meet at london’s Victoria and Albert museum, Grindell effortlessly blending into its elegant surroundings in a well-cut jacket with a stylish, red buttonhole. It is a disconcertingly civilised backdrop for a sometimes spine-chilling conversation.
Grindell, 53, set up his company after retiring from the Met last november. he was asked by a former police colleague, now a high-profile bodyguard, to assess a death threat against a ‘global icon’. The threat was one of a number online.
Client confidentiality prevents him from naming the ‘icon’, but he says he was able to identify the person sending threats and assess them as non-credible. The individual was not in any physical proximity to the target, nor making moves towards them.
It was the first step to creating a tailor-made service for the rich or famous, with a special emphasis on protecting and reassuring women in the firing line.
‘Anyone in the public eye can become a target for online abuse but women are attacked in a very personal way,’ he says.
Some of the women he worked with in parliament were receiving 200 or more abusive emails a day. however strong they tried to be, most could not resist reading them. ‘It’s like an addiction,’ says Grindell. ‘You get the same thing with stalking victims, they keep looking at the messages and it stokes up the fear.’
SeVerAl female MPs were sent a message saying: ‘You have committed treason and your head belongs on a spike.’ others, including ex home Secretary Amber rudd got one asking: ‘Is there enough rope to hang them along the embankment?’
What struck Grindell most in parliament was the psychological distress caused by trolls, which could be as damaging as a physical attack. ‘I’ve sat beside women MPs who were crying, shaking and terrified,’ he says.
even after 30 years in the police force, Grindell was shocked by what he saw. Anna Soubry, former MP for Broxtowe, was told: ‘Jo Cox was first, you are next.’ She and other women were routinely sent threats he describes as ‘very sexually violent: rape, disfigurement, wanting to stick knives in every orifice, all sorts of cruel, nasty, very personal abuse’.
his job was to analyse messages and establish if they constituted a credible threat. If it was considered the danger was escalating — moving from emails or social media to letters, phone calls or a physical approach — the suspect would be arrested. This did not happen often but there have been at least eight convictions against men who threatened or attempted to assault women MPs.
Grindell categorises the online abusers into ‘hunters and howlers’. The hunters are the rare few who pose a physical threat. howlers ‘are the ones making all the noise, but they don’t want to attack. They get their gratification from being abusive and threatening’.
Something about the online environment, a world without rules or boundaries, seems to encourage people to discard their inhibitions. ‘It’s partly the anonymity,’ says Grindell, ‘and
the distance. They might hurl abuse at someone but they never expect to meet them.’
Certain phrases in a threatening email might set off alarm bells. Grindell’s team then look at all that person’s interactions online to assess their mental health.
What struck him was the emotional and psychological impact of being targeted online.
‘If you are Emily Maitlis or Harry Styles [both the TV presenter and pop star have been pursued by stalkers and Styles recently confessed to feeling “dread and terror” in his own home] are you able to perform and function at the level you should be if you are that stressed and worried? No, none of us could,’ says Grindell.
‘So a huge part of what we do is about psychology. It’s not just about locking doors, it’s making you feel safe. The old thing about sticks and stones is rubbish. Words really can break you.’
Sarah Champion, the MP for Rotherham who was targeted after speaking out about grooming gangs, says she is ‘hugely grateful for the support, protection and guidance’ she received from Grindell’s team.
Shami Chakrabarti, shadow attorney general, was alerted to a threat to her security when Grindell found personal details and pictures of her home online.
Searching every media platform for any leak of a client’s personal details is part of the security package, as is the monitoring of threats — most of which are sent via Twitter
or Facebook. MPs also have a parliamentary email address which is easily accessible.
Another politician Grindell advised says she was driven to the brink of despair by threats of violence. She was denounced as a ‘bitch’ and a ‘dominatrix’ and warned to ‘Watch your back’.
Grindell’s review of her personal security resulted in shatterproof film being fitted to the windows in her house, extra locks, CCTV, a panic button and a personal alarm to carry in her handbag.
Abusive emails and social media messages were intercepted by his security team so she would not have to read them.
Grindell has also advised TV presenters, including the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg and Sky’s Kay
Burley. He has become convinced misogyny should be categorised as a hate crime.
He says: ‘Men will get “You’re an incompetent so-and-so, you’re rubbish…”, but women get very personalised abuse, about their looks or their weight, to the ludicrous point of saying, “You’re so ugly I wouldn’t even rape you.”
‘Why should women have to put up with it? For me, it was clear that women politicians were being targeted because they were women, probably by men who are intimidated by successful women and make themselves feel better by bringing them down.’
It was something that had never really occurred to Grindell before: the level of hatred towards women came as a shock. ‘Why should we live in a culture where it is OK to be cruel to women?’ he says.
‘The law is there to change behaviour and when behaviour changes, attitudes change too.’ Just as men are targeted differently to women, so celebrities are targeted in a different way to politicians — which makes their online abusers more dangerous. ‘Emotion gets involved,’ says Grindell.
Devoted fans — especially those with burgeoning mental health issues — can become fixated.
‘They might light on Cameron Diaz, say, and send her pictures and messages. Then one day they find out she has a boyfriend.
‘They think, “It’s Cameron and me who should be together…so I need to get rid of him.” Or they turn against her and she becomes their target.
‘A good example over here would be Harry and Meghan.
‘When they got together, she got lots of online abuse. There were women out there who thought Harry was theirs.’
Grindell does not advise confronting a troll yourself.
‘If you are using your laptop it has an IP address, a set of numbers that identifies you and if you know what you are doing you can often track someone down.
‘My people are all ex-terrorism so they know where to look, even on the dark web. Generally speaking, people will leave traces, they will use the same name somewhere else, they’ll get complacent.’
One piece of advice he gives his clients is to stop reading threats. He tells them to turn off their phones for several hours a day to start regaining their equilibrium.
In using laptops, devices such as Alexa and posting on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, we are constantly giving out information about ourselves.
REMEMBER any device can be hacked, says Grindell. He has just been asked to advise Premier League footballers on security, following several burglaries. People in their affluent bracket have become keen on ‘smart’ homes, but the problem is any internet-enabled device with a default password can be hacked.
More worryingly, our privacy can be invaded by household items we install. The National Cyber Security Centre has just warned about nanny cams which, if not security-protected can be hacked by anyone who wants to watch you . . . or your children.
‘I’ve got friends who can see where their wives are through their phones,’ says Grindell.
‘When a relationship breaks up you may not think about changing those settings. Your ex might see you are at a certain venue and turn up. If you are with another man, even just a friend, that can be misconstrued and blown out of proportion.’
Defuse Global’s services start at £2,500, which includes an initial meeting, followed by a review of your online and personal security. But if you don’t have Grindell to watch your back the best way to keep yourself safe — online and off — is to trust your instinct.
‘It’s an awful thing to say, but when I’ve dealt with rape or sexual assault victims over the years, so many of them have said: “There was just something about him…”
‘So listen to what your instinct is telling you, don’t suppress it for the sake of being polite. If something feels wrong, it probably is.’
If someone starts sending you abusive messages, report it. The advice might be to let things run for a while to collect evidence and monitor any escalation in behaviour. Remember online bullying is harassment, so seek help.
For most of us, that’s a trip to the local police station. If you’re a celebrity, you know who to call.