Could you be a stalker’s next victim?

With 1.1million cases reported per year, Closer asks what more can be done to protect us from this terrifying form of abuse

hristine C Lampard recently revealed the terror she’d suffered at the hands of her stalker. The 39-year-old TV presenter was stalked by fan Christoff King for three years. She told a court how she first received threatening messages on Twitter from him in 2015. Despite blocking and reporting his account, two months later, he turned up at her home, where Christine was forced to hide in her bedroom as he knocked on the door.

As Closer went to press, King had admitted a charge of stalking. He denied sending the Tweets but a judge ruled that he did. He will be sentenced in July.

SHOCKING STATS

And just last week, TV personality Lizzie Cundy revealed her terror at the hands of a stalker. Lizzie, 48, explained that she started getting emails from a woman who claimed she represented famous footballers. Not believing the messages, Lizzie chose to ignore them, but said they became increasingly nasty. She blocked the email address, but would continue to get messages from other accounts. She even had to change her phone number after getting a barrage of texts from the stalker. Her Mini convertible was also broken into. Officers are now investigating both the car break-in, as well as the messages that Lizzie has received, and believe the two are linked. Tragically, Christine and Lizzie are not alone. Recent figures show that stalking is on the rise, with 1.1million people – the majority being women – falling victim every year, with a shocking two women every week being killed by their stalkers. One in five women will experience stalking in their adult lives, yet only one per cent of cases recorded by the police result in prosecution.

It’s hard to forget the case of Philomena Willets, 41, who made headlines in November 2017, when she told a court that she’d been stalked for 21 years by her ex-boyfriend. Over the years, he’d poured paint stripper on her car and harassed her at work – but was jailed for just 40 months.

And last year, Closer spoke to Lorraine Mitchell, 52, who was stalked for ten years by Sherzad Salih, 38, initially a stranger to her. Salih first approached Lorraine as she sat in her car outside her then-workplace in St Leonardson-sea, asking her to go on a date. When she declined, he told her he “knew everything about her” – despite Lorraine never having met him before. Lorraine said, “I was scared all the time and stopped socialising with friends.”

Stalking victims say the biggest issue is that the crime isn’t taken seriously enough – and that it can have dire consequences. Victoria Charleston, policy and development officer at the Suzy Lamplugh Trust – a charity that runs the National Stalking Helpline – says, “The huge psychological trauma for victims is underestimated. It’s like having someone constantly living in your head and can affect everything from work to family life. It can happen to anyone – stalkers are often ex-partners, but can also be a stranger you pass in the street. Victims frequently report not being taken seriously and often stalking isn’t properly understood by professionals, meaning that victims sometimes end up paying with their lives.”

The charity is now backing a new Stalking Protection Bill, which is currently making its way through parliament, and will allow police earlier intervention.

TERRORISED

Beckie Cameron, 21, understands only too easily how you can fall victim to stalking. The care worker was terrorised for three months by a former classmate, Daniel Berry, who she hadn’t seen for over a decade. He left violent messages and threatened her with a knife and is now behind bars, but the care worker says she already feels anxious about his release.

She says, “Daniel was sentenced to a year in jail in

❛HE STOOD THERE SHOUTING AND WAVING A KNIFE AROUND – I WAS TERRIFIED❜

April, but I’ve been warned that he could be out by October. It scares me.”

Beckie, from Manchester, first met Berry, 21, when they started secondary school, but when she moved school a year later, they lost contact. She says, “I wasn’t aware of him again until November 2017, when he requested to follow me on Instagram.”

Beckie had just been through a break-up and was feeling lonely, so when Berry messaged her, she thought it was an opportunity to make a new friend. She says, “We met up and got on well. We arranged to meet about ten times over the following weeks and there was usually another friend of mine there.”

ABUSIVE TEXTS

One afternoon in December 2017, when Beckie told Daniel she was busy with other friends, he became jealous and aggressive.

She says, “Daniel starting asking me who I was with. When I told him, he started threatening to damage that friend’s car and shouting abuse.”

Over the next few days, Beckie received abusive texts, and when she ignored them, Berry turned up at her house.

She says, “He was outside yelling and kicked down our fence. I rang the police, but they couldn’t find him. I blocked his phone number, but he would just use friends’ mobiles to call me repeatedly. He started sitting outside my house and then following me. It got to the point where I was too scared to go to a couple of homes of clients’ I cared for, because Daniel knew I worked there, so I ended up losing my carer job. He began showing up at my house more often. I called the police four times, but they couldn’t do anything as every time he’d run away and hide.”

Beckie would get up to 80 threatening phone calls and texts from Berry daily. One morning, in February this year, Berry arrived at the house she shares with her mum and brother, brandishing a knife.

She explains, “My mum and brother were at the front door when Daniel started throwing slates at them. My friend and I were in the garden and Daniel was screaming that he was going to stab my brother and burn our house down. He stood there shouting and waving the knife around. It was terrifying. He then threw a brick that went through the kitchen window. We rang the police and he ran off.”

GUILTY

Daniel was arrested and, in April, pleaded guilty to stalking involving fear of violence, affray and assault by beating. He was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered not to approach Beckie or her family on his release.

Beckie says, “I don’t think there’s enough protection or tough enough sentences to protect women like me. This ordeal has completely changed my life. We need stricter measures in place and longer sentences. I don’t want anyone to go through the trauma that I have.”