Only two in 10 stalkers face court despite surge in complaints
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EIGHT in 10 people accused of stalking never face charges, although reports of the offence have trebled in four years, statistics show.
Of 10,214 stalking allegations made in England and Wales in the financial year to 2018, only 1,822 resulted in a suspect being charged, according to Home Office statistics.
Just 19.6 per cent of the 9,283 cases in which an outcome was recorded ended in a charge, a dramatic drop from 2015 when 40.6 per cent – 885 – of 2,181 cases resulted in a suspect going to court. and POLICE investigating the disappearance of midwife Samantha Eastwood yesterday discovered a body after searching a disused quarry eight miles from where she was last seen alive.
Specialist teams had been searching an area near the village of Caverswall, which lies close to the Staffordshire moorlands, as part of the increasingly desperate hunt for the 28-year-old.
But yesterday afternoon Staffordshire Police announced they had found a body.
They also revealed that three men were being held in custody in connection with her disappearance.
The force said the body had yet to be formally identified but that specialist officers were supporting Miss Eastwood’s family at “this difficult time”.
Det Supt Simon Duffy said: “The discovery is not what anyone wanted, and this is now a homicide investigation. A 32-year-old man who was previously released on conditional bail, has now been re-arrested for murder and remains in custody. Two other men, aged 28 and 60, have been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.”
Dozens of specialist officers and police dogs had spent the day searching Tick Hill Quarry and nearby fields and woodland. Uniformed officers could be seen using long sticks to examine undergrowth as part of the hunt for Ms Eastwood, who was last seen leaving work at Royal Stoke University Hospital at 7.45am on Friday July 27.
Ms Eastwood had been due to marry John Peake, 34, this June but their engagement was called off in January. Women’s charities and relatives of those killed by stalkers say the figures prove police are failing to take the crime seriously.
Patricia Bernal, whose daughter Clare was shot dead in Harvey Nichols and who co-founded Protection Against Stalking, said: “Fourteen years after my daughter’s death, stalkers are continuing to be freed by the courts that fail to recognise the danger signs of obsessive and fixated behaviour.”
The figures also show the number of cases dropped because the victim “does not support action” has soared from 16.4 per cent in 2015, when 358 The search around Caverswall came after police began treating the home of Mr Peake’s brother-in-law as a potential crime scene.
Police have been stationed outside a property belonging to Katie Stirling, Mr Peake’s sister, and her husband Michael, a fencing contractor, since last Sunday.
Police are understood to be focusing on a two-hour time frame between 9pm and 11pm on the day she vanished.
Nigel Potts, who farms at New Hall Farm, one of only six homes along the mile-long single track Tick Hill Lane, said: “There is a huge police activity down there. It is very disturbing and I keep thinking this can’t be real. They are clearly chasing a lead and I fear they have a tip her body is there, but I pray she is found safe and well.”
Mr Potts revealed police hoped to recover CCTV footage from his home and neighbouring properties covering those key hours. He said: “Officers first came to visit on Thursday afternoon and were inquiring if I had any film from the Friday 9-11pm. They said they were focusing on those two hours and were looking for a vehicle. It’s a very rural and remote area and I have CCTV but it didn’t go back to that day unfortunately.”
Mr Potts, 53, added: “The quarry is about quarter of a mile down the road from my place. It’s in the middle of nowhere but once a month you get organised 4x4 events there. You also get walkers and cyclists up here. My heart goes out to that poor woman’s family, not knowing where she is and now po- women abandoned stalking claims, to 37.7 per cent in 2017-18, when 3,503 cases were dropped.
Government statistics show 119 of 212 convicted and sentenced stalkers in 2017-18 were freed – 81 on a suspended sentence, 34 given community service, and four fined or given a conditional discharge. Just 85 were jailed.
Despite the maximum jail term for stalking being increased in 2017 from five to 10 years, no one received the maximum term. Two got four years, with the majority jailed for between a year and 18 months.
Victoria Charleston, policy manager lice searching on such a big scale.” Det Supt Duffy appealed for the public to report any unusual or suspicious activity, including parked vehicles in rural lay-bys around the Stoke-on- at the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, said many cases are incorrectly charged as harassment. She added: “There are important differences. Stalkers are motivated by fixation and obsession. If they are convicted of harassment, they won’t get the help they need, and the victim is not entitled to better protection.
“While these statistics show people are coming forward to report stalking, they reveal the police and Crown Prosecution Service don’t always move to charge, or charge correctly.”
Katie Ghose, the chief executive of Women’s Aid, said the “drastic rise” in the number of women who did not Trent and North Staffordshire area. Liz Rix, the chief nurse with University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, confirmed Miss Eastwood’s death on Twitter and paid tribute to the “much loved and valued” midwife.
She wrote: “Sam will be deeply missed and our thoughts are with her family and friends during this time. Sam, who had worked ... at Royal Stoke for six years, was a much loved and valued member of the maternity service.” support further action was “shocking”. She said: “They are often too afraid to go ahead, especially if the perpetrator is an abusive former partner.
“It is clear more needs to be done to give victims the confidence they will be listened to, believed and supported.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said that the Government had taken “tough action” and added that new sentencing guidelines will encourage courts to properly punish offenders.
A Home Office spokesman said the increase in reported offences was due to an improvement in the way police recorded crimes.
‘There is a huge police activity down there, it is very disturbing and I keep thinking this can’t be real’