Isabel Webster says what you’re thinking
TIME TO TREAT STALKING WITH THE SERIOUSNESS THAT IT DESERVES
Hearing from my best friend, a doctor, that one of her patients had become infatuated with her, I wasn’t at all surprised. She has always had an army of male admirers ever since I’ve known her. But she insisted this one was different. Over the next few months this loner honed in on my pretty, kind and clever friend. Showing up repeatedly at her workplace, often leaving her paralysed with fear. In the dead of winter, after work, her stalker would be waiting for her in the dark. He’d have gifts for her kids. How did he know she had children? He’d been following her home. What was he capable of? She would go to bed shaking and wake up to that punch in the stomach as she remembered again. A low point was queuing up for airport-style security – before a court hearing to grant a restraining order – and realising he was in the line directly behind her. She could feel his breath on the back of her neck! That should never, ever, have been allowed to happen.
Victims of stalking, and their families, are terrorised by this crime. Suzy Lamplugh, a 25-year-old estate agent, vanished in 1986 after going to meet a client. Evidence suggests she, too, may have been targeted by a stalker. The Suzy Lamplugh Trust has published new research that found ‘systemic issues’ in how police deal with the crime. Despite evidence that murderers often have a history of stalking, less than half of police forces keep a record of how many stalkers go on to commit other offences. That needs to change.
Just last month the government moved to lower the threshold for evidence of stalking from criminal (high bar) to civil (lower bar) so that protection can be given more readily to victims. They’ve also doubled the maximum sentence for stalkers. These changes are welcome, but the fact remains only 1.7% of cases result in conviction. This is not good enough.
Everybody has the right to feel safe in their home and workplace. We need to wise up, and recognise the persistent terror and fear of violence this crime causes and its worrying link to homicide.
