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Crystal X

Crystal X

I have over five decades experience in the world of work, being in fast food, the military, business, non-profits, and the healthcare sector.

Deleterious Dating: a Personal Account of Dating Applications

7 min readNov 1, 2026

Disclaimer

This work is a memoir. It reflects my present recollections of experiences over a period of time. Some names, identities, locations, and identifying characteristics have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

My Story

It was around 2013, during my personal group stalking experience that, being so lonely, I went on to the Plenty of Fish dating application in the hopes of finding a partner.

I have never had any positive experience on any dating website, but I do know of women who have met have met men on dating sites and have actually gotten married through those sites. For instance, I know a woman who I had at one time considered to be my best friend, Stephanie, who met a police officer on a web dating site, and actually married him. I personally have never had any such good fortune to meet someone on a dating application and then develop a harmonious relationship with that person.

When I was on the Plenty of Fish application, a man who I will call Dick, pursued me relentlessly. He lived in Caversham, which is just a stone’s throw away from Reading. Although I was not initially interested in Dick, I eventually thought it would be a convenient association because the two of us lived in such close proximity to each other.

Dick phoned me relentlessly and actually sent me a video tour of his house. One thing Dick told me he loved was perfume. He told me he liked to take perfume bubble baths at the end of each day to relax.

One Friday or Saturday night, Dick phoned me and wanted to take me to dinner, so we went to Back of Beyond, a Wetherspoons restaurant on Kings Road. When I walked into the restaurant, I noticed a colleague from Foster Wheeler, who worked in the legal department, sitting at a high table drinking a beer with a group of his friends. I did not think anything of this sighting at the time, but in hindsight, could it be that this man was at the Wetherspoons restaurant because he knew I was going to be there? Could this man be part of my group stalking experience?

I was a very lonely person indeed. During the week when I was working, I was able to see people, even though they were not nice to me. It was during the weekends when I was not working, when I needed to find things to do stay occupied. I therefore wanted to go out with someone on those days when I was all alone, all by myself.

Dick said that he his parents had a 50th anniversary dinner party to go to on one Sunday and he would see me after the dinner. Dick did not come to my place at the expected time and I got upset. I told him over a text message to just forget about dating me because he was not reliable.

Dick therefore rushed over to my flat and that was the first time we were intimate. Intimacy with Dick was, what I would say, an underwhelming experience. I believe that he had to use performance enhancing drugs because the intimate act was not really completed.

Dick told me that he had parking tickets when he went to see me, so I gave him the money to pay those parking tickets because I had a job that paid okay at Foster Wheeler at the time.

Dick came to my flat one night and asked me to smell his perfume, which I found to be an odd thing for a man to say to a woman. To be polite, I smelled the perfume that he said he was wearing. He got into my bed and refused to take off his heavy plaid flannel shirt, which resembled a hunter’s shirt. While Dick and I were on the bed together, I had a very bad reaction to the toxic substance that Dick must have sprayed on that heavy hunter’s shirt he was wearing. My reaction was so bad that I could not breathe. I had to get my inhaler out of my shelf and try to remember how to use it because I rarely ever used it.

What is unusual about my very negative reaction to the perfume that Dick was wearing was his response, or lack of one, to my reaction to the toxin I had inhaled. Dick had no response at all. He just sat on my bed watching me struggle to breathe. I would like to let the reader know at this point in this blog post that my breathing has never been the same since that incident. I now have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) as a result of what Dick did.

When Dick left my flat that evening, the only thing he did was to tell me to take care of myself. Dick did not offer to help me in any way even though he could see I was struggling to breathe.

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I saw Dick one more time after that date where, I see now, it is pretty clear he had sprayed some kind of a toxic substance onto the heavy hunter’s shirt he was wearing. I was scheduled to go on holiday to Malta with a friend, so I saw Dick on the morning before I left on the holiday. When Dick said goodbye to me, he told me he was going to miss me. That would be the last time that I ever saw Dick.

I was supposed to see Dick when I came back from my holiday to Malta, but that never happened. Dick had blocked me on Tango and his phone. It is pretty apparent to me now that Dick had plans to harm me by spraying a toxic substance on a hunter’s shirt and asking me to smell that substance.

When I realised that Dick had intentionally harmed me by subjecting me to a toxic substance, I made a complaint to the police.

I would like to take this opportunity to say that Thames Valley Police (TVP) are utterly useless. When I phoned TVP and made a complaint about what Dick had done, the police officer told me that I was to blame because I am no good at relationships and I cannot get along with other people. I was incredulous at the police officer’s indifferent response to my being poisoned by a date.

One day I was very upset that Dick had gotten away with harming me and causing injury to my lungs, so I wrote a letter to Halfords head office, sending them copies of emails that had been exchanged between Dick and myself. Halfords replied to my letter the very next day, telling me that it was a personal matter and they were not going to act on it. Halfords, it appears, has no qualms about employing a man who intentionally harms women.

Therefore, Dick was successful in going onto Plenty of Fish dating application and looking for a vulnerable woman, who happened to be me. Dick was able to get into my home and poison me with a toxic, sweet smelling substance that he had sprayed on his clothing. I could have expired, and Dick would have surreptitiously slipped out of my flat into the darkness of the night, never to be exposed for the evil deed that he had committed.

I don’t know how many women Dick has poisoned and harmed with his tactic of saying he liked perfume and asking women to smell it. I don’t know how many women have complained to the police about him, with the police refusing to investigate the matter.

One thing I do know, however, is that TVP are refusing to investigate this very serious crime and prosecute Dick for what he is doing to women. TVP, therefore, is complicit in this very evil method that Dick is using to harm women.

I would like to thank the reader for their time in reading my story.

To find out what happened to me at Foster Wheeler, read here:- https://medium.com/@tracyrenee61/not-a-place-for-good-people-a-personal-account-of-life-inside-foster-wheeler-40f64c5283f8?sharedUserId=tracyrenee61

To find out which very powerful politician had me sectioned, read here:- https://medium.com/@tracyrenee61/who-is-this-man-called-dave-5c18ed532d5a?sharedUserId=tracyrenee61

To find out which charity shop participated in my group stalking, read here:-https://tracyrenee61.medium.com/all-in-your-head-a-personal-account-of-volunteering-at-a-charity-shop-aa1d663a0514?sharedUserId=tracyrenee61

To find out my experience with the Christian Science Church, read here:- https://medium.com/@tracyrenee61/thats-science-baby-my-personal-experience-of-christian-science-cf414b612c13?sharedUserId=tracyrenee61

To find out my experience with the Bahai Faith, read here:- https://medium.com/@tracyrenee61/the-bahai-blues-my-personal-experience-of-the-bahai-faith-ed30da22fcfb?sharedUserId=tracyrenee61

To find out my experience of the United Reform Church, read here:- https://medium.com/@tracyrenee61/the-church-on-the-corner-my-personal-experience-of-the-urc-fd0749c31fe5?sharedUserId=tracyrenee61

To find out what happened to me at Prospect Park Hospital, read here:- https://tracyrenee61.medium.com/safe-on-paper-unsafe-in-practice-why-i-dont-feel-safe-around-mental-health-workers-c8d70bcf36e0?sharedUserId=tracyrenee61

To find out what life is like in my neighbourhood, read here:- https://tracyrenee61.medium.com/living-on-the-wrong-side-of-safe-one-residents-story-of-crime-fear-and-community-781d5b0cc4b4?sharedUserId=tracyrenee61

To find out what happened to a friend and me when a vicar offered us free counselling:- https://tracyrenee61.medium.com/when-the-pulpit-turns-poisonous-9ea52b5707f9?sharedUserId=tracyrenee61

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Crystal X
Crystal X

Written by Crystal X

I have over five decades experience in the world of work, being in fast food, the military, business, non-profits, and the healthcare sector.