Caroline's stalker was made the subject of a restraining order on May 24. By May 29, she had reported him for repeated breaches. So why did it take months' more harrassment, and this newspaper's intervention, before the Met Police finally arrested him?
A young woman has criticised the Metropolitan Police after it failed to arrest her stalker for months, despite constant breaches of his restraining order.
Caroline (not her real name), said police had told her that her stalker was a wanted man and officers were trying to track him down.
But the Brent & Kilburn Times quickly discovered police had missed an opportunity to apprehend him more than two months ago, when he arrived as scheduled for an unrelated court appearance.
He was finally arrested hours after we raised questions over the force’s inaction.
“It’s just ridiculous that I have to take a step like this, rather than them doing their jobs in the first place,” said Caroline.
She contacted the Times in despair on August 13 and said she had been filing constant police reports since May but nothing was being done.
Missed opportunity
Caroline’s stalker – an obsessive ex-boyfriend – was convicted and slapped with a restraining order on May 24, after a long campaign of harassment.
“He breached it the next day,” she said.
She started receiving constant phone calls from withheld numbers.
“It was obviously him,” she said. “Who else would it be?”
They persisted for days. On May 29, she reported them to police.
Caroline, 23, claims she was told that her stalker had failed to attend a probation appointment and was a wanted man.
Whenever she has sought updates since then, she said, she has been told that police are looking for him.
But the Times has discovered that on June 1 – three days after Caroline reported the first breaches of the restraining order – her stalker attended a court hearing over unrelated driving offences.
We asked Met why he was not arrested at court. It did not answer.
Campaign of harassment
For the subsequent two months, said Caroline, her stalker made her life hell.
The incessant anonymous calls continued.
On one occasion, she said, he admitted it was him and laughingly told her she could walk right past him now and not know, because he had changed his car.
Another time she answered and “it was a really weird sound – like someone screeching. Then there was another number that kept calling me and saying my name in a really strange way.
“He always seems to call me when I’m just leaving the house or just coming back. I think he is watching me.”
Takeaways kept arriving at Caroline’s family home, which they hadn’t ordered and which had not been paid for.
Then an Instagram account popped up in Caroline’s name and kept trying to befriend her relatives, she said.
She told the Times that somebody also kept trying to hack into her online accounts.
Arrest
On Saturday, August 12, Caroline said she received another anonymous call at 6.36am.
At 6.37am, somebody tried again to hack into her Microsoft account.
Two days later she called the Times.
“I was told having a restraining order would give the police more power,” she said.
“He breached it straight away. They are doing nothing. I call the investigating officer, who said to call him whenever I want. It always goes to voicemail. I don’t think they are doing anything at all to catch him.”
We confronted the force on August 15.
Caroline’s stalker was arrested roughly 12 hours later and has now been charged with stalking involving serious alarm and distress, as well as breach of a restraining order.
We are not naming him, so as not to prejudice live proceedings.
“Disappointed”
According to charity Refuge, an average of two women per week in England and Wales are killed by a current or former partner.
A British study found in 2017 that stalking is a precursor to 94% of murders.
In response to a request for comment on this story, the Met said: “Targeting those who commit offences against women and girls is one of our top priorities.”
Last year, Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley told LBC the force would “identify and target” stalkers.
“We are investing significantly more time and resources to prevent and investigate these harmful crimes,” the force said.
But, said Caroline: “I’m very disappointed. It genuinely makes me want to move abroad, somewhere it would be taken more seriously. It’s been going on for so long.”
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