Alice Ruggles' family: 'Police need more training on how to deal with stalkers'

By Kris Jepson

The family of Alice Ruggles have called for the police to have more training on how to deal with stalkers, after her murderer and ex-boyfriend Lance Corporal Trimaan Dhillon was given a life sentence.Alice, 24, was found laying dead in her Gateshead flat in October 2016, after Dhillon had stalked her for months - despite being warned by police to stop.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment on Wednesday 26th April.

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Alice's mother, Dr Sue Hills, said there needs to be a change in procedure. Dhillon had been given a PIN or Police Information Notice, which is an official warning designed to prevent stalking, but he continued to harass Alice.

Northumbria Police told ITV News it has carried out an investigation into the case, which is currently being reviewed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), and once that is returned the force will learn any lessons from the case.

For the first time, Alice's parents told of the moment they found out she had been killed.

Her father, Clive Ruggles, said, "I woke up, I could hear the dog barking and a knock at the door. It was two in the morning so I went down and there were two police at the door saying 'can we come in?'

"All this time you know it's going to be something horrible, but you don't know what it's going to be and then they said 'it's Alice' and that was it, that was the moment we knew.

"Actually I think at that moment we looked at each other and we said 'it's Harry' (Dhillon)".

Read more: Alice Ruggles murder: Former soldier guilty of killing