'I found deepfake porn of myself online. Then I found out who was responsible.'

When high school teacher Hannah Grundy received a series of cryptic emails, she never imagined they would lead her to uncover a deeply disturbing internet hate crime.

The first email was brief, asking if she recognised a man in a photo who was posting photos of her online. Hannah didn't know the person and ignored it, assuming it was a scam. But over the next two months, similar emails followed, warning her that this man, from Sydney University was posting explicit photos of her online. Again, Hannah dismissed them.

Then came the email that changed everything. It was from another woman; another victim.

"I received an email from a woman who said, 'I think this is happening to you too, Hannah,'" she recalls. "She said someone was posting photos of me online, someone from Sydney Uni, and that she was going to keep emailing me because this was very important. She warned me that the link she was sending contained disturbing images."

Still skeptical, Hannah and her partner, Kris, clicked on the link. What they found was far worse than anything they could have imagined.

"The link took us to this website. It's been taken down since, but it was like a forum, a thread like Reddit. My thread was called 'The Destruction of Hannah', and it had thousands of posts. Different men were posting, and they'd started a poll where they were voting on how best to rape me. The photos were pornographic images of real women, but they had superimposed my face onto their bodies. Some were really crude, but others used AI, and there were even GIFs, moving images of violent porn with my face on them."

Image: Supplied.

"The images were mostly made up of incredibly violent porn, women tied up and beaten, with bruises added to my face. It was so terrifying that my brain just said, to keep me safe, I cannot see any more of this website. We later found out there were 600 posts of me. But scrolling through that first thread it's a shock that someone can spend that time so fixated on you," Hannah said.

But the horror deepened when Hannah realised the personal nature of the images; whoever accessed the photos of her must be in her friend circle.

"I instantly thought, 'How did this person get these photos of me?' I've been a high school teacher for over a decade, so my social media has been locked down for 13 years. I knew right away, it had to be someone I knew. And just knowing that this person was clearly one of my friends was terrifying, though I never imagined for a moment that it would be someone very close to me."

The betrayer revealed.

Hannah was not the only woman whose photographs were being used on the hate site. Determined to uncover who was behind this, Hannah and Kris began their own investigation, meticulously narrowing down the suspects.

"We started going through the posts, looking at what this person had posted about other women. We wrote down all their names, searched them on Facebook, and started cross-referencing people we had in common. We put together a spreadsheet, and the group of men we had in common with these women got smaller and smaller. Eventually, we got it down to three people."

Hannah realised only one person could possibly be responsible; that discovery was shattering. Surely it wasn't the man who'd been such a close friend and mentor?

"We figured out it could only be our close friend Andy. He was literally one of our best and most trusted friends. My partner and I had worked with him for six years at Manning Bar at Sydney Uni. He had been my supervisor and as a mentor, he trained me to be a manager. I trusted him completely, and Kris did too. To find out that it was him, that this man who had been a part of our lives for so long was behind it – it was devastating."

Andrew Thomas Hayler might have been one of Hannah's most trusted friends for over a decade, yet behind the façade of friendship, he had been orchestrating a two-year campaign of online abuse, targeting Hannah and at least 25 other women. But the process towards justice took an unnecessarily long time and if Hannah hadn't pushed as hard as she had, her abuser would still be at large.

Watch: Trailer: Betrayed | Hannah Grundy | Australian Story. Post continues after video.

A long fight for justice.

With the truth uncovered, Hannah and Kris took their evidence to the police, expecting swift action. But that wasn't the case; the police did absolutely nothing at first, leaving Hannah and her partner to take action themselves.

"I thought we could just hand it all in, and the police would act right away. It was obvious it was him. We had all the evidence; screenshots, photos, everything. But after spending the entire day giving a statement, we left thinking something was going to happen, but... nothing happened," Hannah said.

For months, Andy continued posting threats about Hannah. "I had to keep him as a friend on social media so he wouldn't know we were onto him. He was still posting, saying things like, 'I know where she lives, I live close to her, I know where she works, and I'm closing in on the slut.' It ramped up, and that freaked us out."

Despite the mounting threats, the police were very slow to act. "We were absolutely desperate, and he started posting about other close friends of ours. The stress was unbearable, so we hired lawyers to put pressure on the police. It cost us a huge amount of money. Even then, nothing happened until we hired a private investigator."

The private investigator confirmed what Hannah and Kris already knew: it was Andy. The investigator simply repackaged the evidence Hannah had put together and sent it to the police. Finally, the wheels of justice began to turn.

"About five days after the private investigator sent his report, the police contacted us to say the case had been assigned to a detective. Two weeks later, they raided Andy's house. They seized all his devices; computers, hard drives, phones, and found everything. He had all of our photos on every device he owned."

The Extent of Hayler's Crimes

What the police uncovered during the raid was sickening. Andrew Thomas Hayler had been using social media photos of his victims, superimposing their faces onto explicit pornographic images, and uploading these altered images to an Instagram account and a pornographic website with over 300,000 members.

In addition to Hannah, there were 26 other victims, many of whom were his close friends, former housemates, and colleagues. The posts were often accompanied by violent rape fantasies and graphic descriptions of how the women should be assaulted. In some cases, he published their full names, occupations, and suburbs, inviting other users to comment on how they would rape them.

Image: Supplied.

"I can't even begin to describe the feeling of knowing that someone I trusted so much was doing this," Hannah said. "He wasn't just targeting me, he was targeting strong, successful women. Every woman he went after had a career, goals, and intelligence. But why he fixated on me more than the others... I'll never know."

In 2022, Hayler pleaded guilty to 28 counts of using a carriage service to cause offense, involving 26 women over a two-year period. Seven of these women, including Hannah, provided victim impact statements at his sentencing. Hayler received a landmark sentence of nine years in prison, five of which are without parole.

The cost of justice.

Although justice was served, the emotional and financial toll on Hannah has been immense. "What I've learned from this is that if you don't have the money or contacts, you don't get justice. We spent over $20,000 just to push the police to do their job. Without that, Andy would still be out there posting about me."

Even with Hayler behind bars, the experience has left scars. "I never got to speak to him, even in court. When we went to his sentencing, he looked at my partner, Kris, and told him he was sorry, but he ignored me. I'll never fully understand why he did it. I'll never get the answers I need. And now we've been told he is appealing his sentence."

Reflecting on the ordeal, Hannah remains hopeful that sharing her story will highlight the need for change. "There are new laws now, with stricter sentences for these kinds of crimes, but it shouldn't take spending thousands of dollars and years of stress just to get justice. This could happen to anyone, and the system needs to do better."

You can watch Hannah's story on AUSTRALIAN STORY on ABC iView.

Feature Image: Supplied.