Louise Minchin: The Truth About Stalking
Annually, approximately 1.5 million people in the UK are affected by stalking behaviour - whether it be surveillance, sending hundreds of messages online or turning up outside a home. Yet stalking remains a crime with very low conviction rates. Our reporter, Louise Minchin, shares her personal story with daughter Mia and investigates how dangerous stalking can be and what help is being offered to support victims.
With stalking cases on the rise, Sarah-Louise Edwards from the Suzy Lamplugh Trust explains that through the National Stalking Helpline, advisors took over 14,000 calls in 2021 - more than ever before.
In 2020, new powers - Stalking Protection Orders (SPOs) - were introduced which allow police forces to ban offenders from making contact with victims or coming within a certain distance of them. They can also force a stalker to surrender their phone or computer, or attend an intervention programme.
We sent a Freedom of Information request to all 43 Police forces across England and Wales. Twenty one responded - and we discovered that out of the 70,385 stalking offences they recorded last year, only 237 Stalking Protection Orders or Interim Orders were issued.
In the same year that SPOs were introduced, Louise started receiving abusive messages on her Instagram account targeted at her and her daughter Mia. They took screenshots of the messages and reported it to the police. In an interview, Louise and Mia discuss their experience...
Their stalker was eventually convicted of causing alarm and distress in December 2021 and sentenced to two years, eight months in jail.
In the programme, Louise visits Cheshire Constabulary’s Anti-Stalking Unit. The team work with probation officers, NHS mental health teams, and victim support services to find out the ‘why’ behind stalking. They advise victims to trust their instincts and report stalking behaviours.
MP Jess Phillips is the Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding. In the programme, she speaks to Louise about the effects that stalking can have on victims and draws on her own experience after being personally stalked by two different men. Along with other campaigners, she is calling for a National Stalkers Register.
The Home Office told ITV Tonight rather than bringing in a national register they’re improving current systems “to better identify the risk perpetrators pose, and enabling more effective data sharing between the police and other frontline agencies”
On Stalking Protection Orders they said they:
“Expect all police forces to make full use of them and the Safeguarding Minister has written to Chief Constables whose forces haven’t applied for many of them to make that clear”
Louise Minchin: The Truth About Stalking will air on Thursday 10th March on ITV at 8:30pm.
Useful Telephone Numbers and Websites:
National Stalking Helpline 0808 802 0300
RESPECT men's advice line 0808 801 0327
National Domestic Violence Helpline 0808 2000 247
Action Against Stalking Scotland
Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls - Government Strategy
If you are in any danger please call 999 in an emergency