For National Stalking Awareness Week 2024, the National Stalking Consortium theme, led by our partners at The Suzy Lamplugh Trust is, “Join Forces Against Stalking”.

Effective multi-agency working is crucial for ensuring victims of stalking are supported from their point of disclosure right through until a conviction and beyond. This year, we are calling for agencies across the police, CPS and healthcare to join forces, and work together to effectively support victims of stalking. We will be showcasing examples of best practice and highlighting the important role multi-agency working has played for the victims we support.

Stalking behaviours and referral to Aurora:

Jessie* was referred to our Thames Valley stalking service by Victims First following a report to the police that her ex-partner had been spying on her through cameras she had set up for her pet, the stalker had been constantly contacting her.

Jessie was in a relationship with the stalker for over five years. The relationship became abusive when their first child was born. The stalker would tell Jessie that if she ever left him, he would destroy her and take away the children. Jessie had been subjected to multiple sexual assaults by the stalker and six accounts of rape, she ended the relationship and moved into her mother’s home with her children. Arrangements were made for child contact through a third party, although the stalker did not attempt to see the children for a few months.

There were occasions in which Jessie had been having private conversations with her mother and her new partner would receive messages alluding to what had been said. The stalker also stole a key for Jessie’s mother’s house and let himself in.

Support provided:

We have been working with Jessie on her safety planning and encouraged her to invest in the Hollie Guard app, a personal alarm, and a video doorbell.

Multi Agency Working:

We referred Jessie to our partners at the Faisal Luke Pro Bono Project, a group of expert lawyers who gave her advice around a Child Arrangement Order and child contact. Unfortunately, Jessie was told by one police officer that the case was ‘low priority’ so we raised this with the force lead in Thames Valley police and the officer was spoken to. This message left Jessie feeling really low and undervalued and we continue to work with her around feeling confident to continue to report to the police.

Jessie has struggled with her mental health and had attempted to overdose before accessing our service. She has been working with mental health professionals and continues to engage in the services and options offered by them. We have remained in contact with her health team to ensure we are working together to provide the best support for Jessie.

Due to some early errors, the case was not referred to the CPS within the statutory time limit by the police, and because the rape charges were separated from the stalking, the charges under stalking were not initially considered under a s.4a, which constitutes the most serious offences in the legislation.

This caused Jessie a great deal of stress and she has been diagnosed with further health issues by her GP, brought on by the stress of the case. We advocated with the police to charge under a s.4a and the police eventually took a statement from Jessie.

Victim Voice and next steps:

Jessie doesn’t have much faith in the case going through the criminal justice system, but she has come this far and needs to prove to the stalker that he does not control her anymore and that she is strong. She is still navigating child contact and Jessie says this has been uncomfortable but manageable, and we routinely update her safety plan with her to make sure she and the children are safe.

We now have to wait for a review of the statement to see if the case can be submitted for the S.4a. Jessie still finds it difficult to leave the house on her own and said she is often concerned the stalker is setting up cameras or listening devices when she is not at the house.

Our next steps are to continue liaising with the police to keep Jessie updated. Jessie understandably still struggles with her mental health, and we continue to link in with those services and assess other options available for her.

Jessie told us she would not have been able to get through all of this without our support and always feels more positive after speaking to us. She also explained that she feels she can open up to us and that she is being understood, and not just listened to.

“You are one of the only services I am being supported by that empowers me to make my own choices and supports me through them.”

*not her real name

#JoinForcesAgainstStalking

If you are being subjected to stalking and you live in Thames Valley, call us on 02392 479254.

You can also contact the National Stalking Helpline on 0808 802 0330.

If you would like to support the Aurora New Dawn charity and you are able to donate you can do so here:

If you would like to support our female only group work and you are able to donate you can do so here:

Aurora’s helpline – 6pm to 9am Monday to Friday and 24hrs over the weekend 02394 216 816

For National Stalking Awareness Week 2024, the National Stalking Consortium theme, led by our partners at The Suzy Lamplugh Trust is, “Join Forces Against Stalking”.

Effective multi-agency working is crucial for ensuring victims of stalking are supported from their point of disclosure right through until a conviction and beyond. This year, we are calling for agencies across the police, CPS and healthcare to join forces, and work together to effectively support victims of stalking. We will be showcasing examples of best practice and highlighting the important role multi-agency working has played for the victims we support.

Stalking behaviours and referral to Aurora – Armed Forces case:

Izzy* is serving in the British Army. She was referred to us via her staff sergeant and unit welfare officer. Izzy told us she had met the stalker through friends at a party and he was added to a WhatsApp group to arrange a camping trip. From there he used Izzy’s number to message her personally.

The messages started to get personal, and Izzy made it clear that she was not interested in a relationship. From there the messages came through on all the client’s social media pages and became very sexually explicit. This was particularly distressing as when Izzy had joined the Army, she had shut down many of her social media accounts, however the messages continued, and she was left feeling like he could circumnavigate any of her security restrictions, so she reported the stalking to her unit.

Support provided:

Throughout the case we consistently reviewed all of Izzy’s online and offline safety. There were multiple access points the stalker used, including that the stalker had found out the street where her mum and sister lived, and he told her he had been outside watching for Izzy. Due to this Izzy had not been returning home to seek support from her family.

Multi Agency Working:

Izzy was put in touch with the MET Police. An officer took several statements from Izzy and downloaded the evidence from her phone to a USB. A harassment order was issued, and the stalker contacted Izzy immediately after receiving the order and told her:

“They’ll have to jail me or kill me before I’ll stop”.

We encouraged Izzy to take this to the police and they said he would be arrested, but he wasn’t, and he continued to stalk her. Izzy was told later that the stalker had convinced the police that they had been in a relationship, and this was their rationale for taking no further action. It was deemed to be ‘a bad break-up’.

Over this time, Izzy changed her surname and blocked all contact and media accounts. The stalker would create more accounts and find ways to message her. The messages ranged from declarations of love to threats to kill her, kidnap her, and sexually assault her.

The stalker described in messages that he had raped his partner and beat her whilst imagining the client. The messages came through at approx. 100 a day and Izzy did not read them; they were left in a message request folder. The videos the stalker sent included naked images, and they were very threatening.

Izzy was really reluctant to report to the police, but she recognised it was now affecting her work and emotional state and she needed support. We supported Izzy to understand our capacity to advocate on her behalf and once she was ready, we called 101 and reported to Hampshire police. They deemed client high risk and said they would attend immediately. A short time later Hampshire Constabulary told us that they had passed the case to Sussex as it was under their jurisdiction.

Initially, Sussex said Izzy was not high risk and there was no way to tell when a police officer would come out, so we attended a meeting with them, and they informed us this was a simple harassment case and they would only need to look at the last 6 months of evidence. At the meeting, the police officer told us it would have been easier if the client had been in a relationship with the stalker.

Our Armed Forces advocate sought guidance from senior management at Aurora who immediately linked in with colleagues at different police depts for assistance. West Sussex police got back in touch and asked the client to send them screen shots of all the messages received.

There were so many messages and Izzy was incredibly distressed at sending them, so we intervened and advocated for the police to organise a face-to-face meeting at a police station so they could take the evidence directly from the phone. It took 2 days to download one weeks’ worth of messages. The Met police intervened at this stage, and after communicating with senior management at Aurora they sent specialist officers to collect the data without Izzy being present. They discovered many hidden messages that Izzy hadn’t seen and stated the content was so disturbing they would not be disclosing it to the client. The Met police took over the investigation and immediately put markers on the homes of the client’s family. The stalker had sent pictures from outside the client’s father’s house and made threats of harm.

The Met police spoke to Izzy’s family to ensure there was safeguarding for everyone connected to her. Whilst all this was going on Izzy was due to deploy oversees and she was encouraged to go, once she was safely out of the country the Met police took a team to arrest the stalker and seize all equipment in his home.

The level of knowledge he had about Izzy was extreme and they were also able to establish who his new partner was to offer her support and assistance.

Victim Voice and next steps:

The stalker was charged and convicted of a stalking 4a offence. He was given a suspended sentence which he immediately breached.

Contact with the police was limited as they preferred going directly to Izzy’s chain of command in the Army, this was frustrating for a young soldier as she did not want her work to know every detail in the case. They assumed she could not complete her duties but it also added a delay in the support we could provide.

We supported Izzy throughout the criminal justice process and the stalker was sent to prison in violation of his suspended sentence.

On case closure, the client was linked in with mental health services in the army and she remained determined to continue in her travels to progress in her career. After the stalker was jailed, Izzy described the silence as being as frightening as the stalking, because the fear had been a huge part of her everyday life, and she struggled to cope when it stopped. She said it was such a strange feeling that others couldn’t understand, and it made things harder for a while as she came to trust that it was finally over.

We met Izzy a year after the case was and she said:

“I finally sleep well at night because since the stalker was released from jail he has been forced to work with mental health teams and, thankfully all the behaviour’s towards her have stopped.”

*not her real name

#JoinForcesAgainstStalking

If you are being subjected to stalking and you live in Thames Valley, call us on 02392 479254.

You can also contact the National Stalking Helpline on 0808 802 0330.

If you would like to support the Aurora New Dawn charity and you are able to donate you can do so here:

If you would like to support our female only group work and you are able to donate you can do so here:

Aurora’s helpline – 6pm to 9am Monday to Friday and 24hrs over the weekend 02394 216 816

For National Stalking Awareness Week 2024, the National Stalking Consortium theme, led by our partners at The Suzy Lamplugh Trust is, “Join Forces Against Stalking”.

Effective multi-agency working is crucial for ensuring victims of stalking are supported from their point of disclosure right through until a conviction and beyond. This year, we are calling for agencies across the police, CPS and healthcare to join forces, and work together to effectively support victims of stalking. We will be showcasing examples of best practice and highlighting the important role multi-agency working has played for the victims we support.

We will share a series of blogs to evidence the importance of effective partnership working for victims of Stalking:

Stalking behaviours and referral to Aurora:

Danna* had been experiencing unwanted behaviour from a friend, he has been running to and from his car to her house and ringing her doorbell. He was loitering outside her house and looking through windows. Danna told us that she had been on a handful of dates with the suspect, and he had become infatuated with her. He was continually stalking her via social media and the stalker would regularly purchase coffee and have it delivered to Danna’s place of work.

Support provided:

We worked with Danna to construct a safety plan, including looking at online and offline access points for the stalker. We discussed all the security measures she could put in and around her house, and recommended the Hollie Guard app, and ID identifying sprays to use whilst she was out shopping. We checked her passwords online with her and security settings on all online platforms.

Multi Agency Working:

We liaised with the police to ensure a marker was placed on her home, her Mum’s home, and her workplace. We also advised the importance of keeping a timeline of incidents as evidence and assured her we would attend the police station with her to offer support when she gave evidence. Danna’s mental health was severely impacted from the stalker’s behaviour, so we linked her in with her GP. In addition, Danna was suffering from acute anxiety and fearful of what the stalker was capable of, so we made sure to give her regular emotional support calls, and continued to ensure she knew of her options on mental health support services.

We experienced some inconsistent communication from the initial police officer in charge of the case, so we raised our concerns to the Police Stalking Lead in Thames Valley, who placed a new officer on the case, instantly the new officer was open to suggestions and kept us and the victim up to date with the progress of the case, this relationship ensured an effective multi agency practice.

The stalker continued to target Danna, both online and offline, every day Danna was having to open her social media accounts and the stalker had posted stuff online, he was also running past her house all the time, it was an incredibly traumatising time for her.

Victim Voice and next steps:

Due to the fact that Danna had kept a log of all incidents and bravely engaged with the police, with us, and with the Crown Prosecution service, she was able to secure a conviction of stalking under s.4a. We further worked with Danna and the police officer to ensure she felt safe and supported in giving her victim personal statement, we also advocated for her with the police on obtaining a stalking protection order, which she secured successfully.

Just because the criminal justice side of things is over it doesn’t mean the need for support is concluded, we make sure that victims leave our service once they are aware of the other support they can access, particularly in relation to the trauma they will be feeling. Danna told us:

I’m just mind blown with everything, I am feeling more positive and I just wanted to thank you for continuous support. It’s certainly been challenging…

*not her real name

#JoinForcesAgainstStalking

If you are being subjected to stalking and you live in Thames Valley, call us on 02392 479254.

You can also contact the National Stalking Helpline on 0808 802 0330.

If you would like to support the Aurora New Dawn charity and you are able to donate you can do so here:

If you would like to support our female only group work and you are able to donate you can do so here:

Aurora’s helpline – 6pm to 9am Monday to Friday and 24hrs over the weekend 02394 216 816