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About Me: A Founder's Journey

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Becky Chadburn is a remarkable individual who has transformed personal adversity into a powerful force for good. As a survivor of domestic abuse, Becky's journey has fuelled her unwavering commitment to empowering others and creating resources for safety, wellness, and healing.

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Becky is the visionary founder of Guardian Angel app, a privacy-first mobile application designed to provide survivors with a comprehensive digital tool for safety, evidence management, and wellness.

 

Built on a "zero-knowledge" principle, the app prioritizes user privacy and provides a secure space for storing sensitive information and accessing vital resources.

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Beyond her work in technology, Becky is a gifted artist and author, having published her book "Let Me Speak!" and created inspiring artwork that reflects her journey of healing and resilience.

 

Her creativity extends to the realm of music, where she has innovatively used AI to turn her powerful poetry into Hip-Hop/Rap songs that are now available on major global platforms like Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music.

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Becky's work is characterized by her authenticity, resilience, and dedication to making a positive impact. She is a passionate advocate for survivors, a natural problem-solver who believes in addressing challenges one step at a time, and an inspiring example of how personal experiences can be channelled into impactful creations.

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With a global vision for creating safe spaces and a growing platform that includes a live website, a mobile app, a book, and music, Becky is building a powerful ecosystem to reach and support those who need it most. Her journey is a testament to the transformative power of creativity, technology, and the human spirit.

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Trigger warning contains my story of abuse!!

The System Fails, The Mission Ignites

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To understand Guardian Angel, you have to understand the reality it was born from. The following are public news reports detailing part of my story. They are a stark reminder of how the system can fail to protect, and why a tool that empowers the survivor is not just helpful, but essential.

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A stalker made his former partner's life "hell" as he set up fake TikTok accounts and bombarded her with emails, including a picture of himself with a noose around his neck.

Darryl Horn-Hooper's alarming campaign began on Christmas Eve, 2021, after she left him, Nottingham Crown Court heard on Monday, July 11.

She moved to a women's refuge but Horn-Hooper sent her 26 voicemails and 200 emails, made comments on her online blog and personal comments on her Facebook account. "She described how the messages made her feel unhappy, and like she was, 'cracking up'," explained Lauren Fisher, prosecuting.

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Horn-Hooper would not stop calling her on a withheld number and continued sending emails - to the tune of 32 emails from 11.20am and 10.20pm in just one day. And he threatened to kill himself in a TikTok video he sent to her in an email.

He set up fake TikTok accounts without her permission.

She even believed he had hacked her emails and social media.

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He sent an email of himself standing with a noose around his neck, with the chilling words: "I hope you are happy?"

 

When she attended a counselling session, she spotted the defendant's car outside the building and called 999. She saw him bring his left hand to his neck as he made a slashing motion and he pointed at the boot of his car.

Her statement revealed she feels completely alone, and mentally and physically unwell. "I feel I am going crazy," she added. He already has five convictions for five offences - two which the court heard were relevant because they were for offences of harassment and breaching a non-molestation order.

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Judge James Sampson labelled his behaviour towards the victims as "disgraceful, persistent and nasty".

"It has caused extreme emotional distress. She (his former partner) has spoken of suicide, serious anxiety, and it has affected her eating and sleeping, and describes you as, 'having made her life hell'," said the judge.

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The judge also accounted for Horn-Hooper being in custody since January 2022, which means he has served the equivalent of a ten to 12 month sentence already.

 

This would mean he would be released without a package of supervision. The judge, therefore, decided the sentence should be 14 months, suspended for 12 months, and added a "building better relationships programme" with a minimum of 30 sessions and 35 rehabilitation activity days.

A restraining order was made to ban contact with both victims for five years.

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The story did not end there. He breached the restraining order almost immediately.

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A Worksop man who contacted his ex-partner within a fortnight of being sentenced for stalking her has been locked up, a court has heard. Prosecutor Stuart Lody described Darryl Horn-Hooper as "someone who doesn't appear to understand the word 'no'."

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He contacted the woman shortly after receiving a 14-month prison sentence, suspended for 21 months, at Nottingham Crown Court in July last year. His victim read out a statement detailing the impact his emotional abuse had on her, which “caused my life to spiral out of control”.

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“I was phoning crisis lines just to say alive,” she said. “He made me feel dead. I wasn't in control of my own life.” Horn-Hooper, aged 49, of Princess Anne Road, Worksop, pleaded guilty to harassment – on breach of a restraining order, at Nottingham Magistrates Court, on June 6.

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Nottingham Crown Court heard he has previous convictions for harassment in 2004, common assault in 2011, and breaching a non-molestation order in 2015.

Bianca Brasoveanu, mitigating, said a pre-sentence report assessed his risk as “manageable in the community”.

"He has stayed away from offending and not contacted his victim since,” she said. “He has been diagnosed with skin cancer."

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This outcome is why Guardian Angel exists. When the system delivers a suspended sentence for making someone's life "hell," the tools for safety cannot be left in the hands of that system alone. They must be in the hands of the survivor. That is my way.