Police said my stalker was ‘nice and polite’, says TV news anchor
Officers treated serious incidents as if they were part of a neighbourhood dispute, journalist claims
A TELEVISION news presenter who was stalked by her neighbour has accused the police and justice system of “gaslighting” her by downplaying her ordeal and suggesting it was little more than a “neighbourhood dispute”.
Isla Traquair, who has appeared on ITN and Channel 5 news programmes, had to fortify her home and stay with friends after Jonathan Barrett began harassing her.
His campaign began in March last year when Traquair moved to Corsham, Wilts. Over more than six months, Barrett, a gardener, stared into the windows of her house.
He also took a chainsaw to a bamboo fence she erected to protect her privacy.
Traquair claimed that when she reported him to police they treated it as a fall-out between neighbours.
She added that when the case eventually came to court, a defence barrister effectively “gaslit” her, causing her to question her own sanity. As she was an articulate professional, she was not seen as a good victim, she suggested.
Barrett, 54, was convicted of stalking after a trial at Salisbury magistrates’ court earlier this year.
He was handed a 12-month restraining order that prevented him from contacting Traquair, or entering or looking into her property, and was ordered to complete 300 hours of community service and pay £715 in costs.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour yesterday , the presenter said the ordeal had left her with PTSD.
She said: “Whenever I came out, he was there. He climbed over my back wall, entered my home through the conservatory and said, ‘you haven’t eaten’ so he had been watching me. He left and came back with a sandwich and watched me eat it. It just built and built. It was really quite alarming… I’m a crime journalist. I didn’t want to call the police and be a victim.”
She called Wiltshire Police again when Barrett followed her in a van and was told they would speak to him. But they did not.
“Eventually, one officer went round but he said, ‘we sat down with him and his partner, and they were nice and polite. It’s a misunderstanding’,” she said.
When police told her to speak directly to Barrett, after refusing to be her “go-between”, she was “really scared. I’d been shouted and sworn at by the stalker. It felt horrendous. I felt helpless, I felt angry. I didn’t know what to do. It was madness, especially because of what my job is. I help victims of crime. They looked at it as a neighbourhood dispute.”
The presenter was so frightened that she began to stay with friends and at one point went to live with her brother in the US.
When the case came to court, Traquair said the defence barrister mocked her. She said: “I was gaslit for being articulate. The defence were saying ‘you’re a journalist, you’re good with words, aren’t you?’ He was criticising who I was. I wasn’t a good victim.
“I’m not OK. It has devastated me. I’ve confronted murderers, and that didn’t scare me anywhere [as much as] … living in this idyllic countryside home. I have nightmares. I have PTSD. I’ve been going to therapy. Even going to the shops ... I just feel unsafe in the world. It has shaken me to my core.”
Dept Chief Constable Paul Mills, of Wiltshire Police, said: “I am really sorry to hear that. What we are trying to do is improve the response, to try and improve standards. Some of the challenges that have come out from … this is officers being able to understand the threats and risk in stalking cases.”
‘I have nightmares. I have PTSD. I’ve been going to therapy. I feel unsafe in the world. It has shaken me to my core’