Former ITV and Channel 5 news presenter and true crime journalist Isla Traquair was stalked and terrorised by her neighbour. Isla has joined our campaign lobbying for stalkers to be included on the same register as sex offenders.
Coercive controllers who have served 12 months or more (in reality that's very few) will be included on the register - but Government Ministers refused to add stalkers. It has been frustrating and we won't give up.
The man who stalked Isla was Jonathan Barrett. It started as soon as she moved into her new house in Wiltshire. He had researched Isla previously and new exactly what she did professionally.
He would stare in her windows and watch her. Whenever she went outside, there he was. He climbed over her back wall and let himself into her house. He poured boiling water onto her plants, used a chainsaw to destroy bamboo fencing she put up so he could not watch her. Barrett followed her in his van and shouted and swore at Isla. He was obsessed and fixated with Isla. This is a fraction of the behaviour the court would hear about.
Eventually after many reports to Wiltshire Police they arrested Barrett, after initially telling Isla they thought he was 'nice and polite' and they would not be her 'go-between.' This was the response by Wiltshire Police whose Chief Constable, Paul Mills, is the national lead for stalking and harassment on behalf of the National Police Chief Counsels!
Following a trial and many sleepless nights, Barrett was ordered to complete 300 hours of community service and pay £715 in cost after being convicted of stalking at Salisbury Magistrates Court. He was also given a restraining order.
Isla said his life has carried on compared to the horrendous impact it has had on hers. She had to move out of her house, she lost friends, she suffered hair loss, anxiety and panic attacks and was forced to shrink her world down.
The impact is long lasting and Isla is changed forever, yet his life carries on.
'I cannot even possibly try and sum up the damage it has done to me emotionally, physically, financially and what it's taken from the time of my life, the friendships it's stolen....
Can you not just ignore him - I got told that a lot. The police actually advised me not to overreact' Isla said.
Isla knows first hand the devastating impact stalkers have on their victims. I always say that stalkers steal lives and take lives. They steal months and years that you will never get back and you will never be the person you once were.
Stalkers should be proactively identified, assessed and managed the same way sex offenders are. Most are serial who target multiple victims, yet there is no way of keeping track of them currently. The onus is always on the victim - to report it, to keep a diary, to change their phone, to move house - to basically disappear themselves.
It makes no sense to force the victim to change their behaviour when the stalker is the problem.
The fear of consequence and accountability that inclusion of stalkers on the Violent & Sexual Offender's Register would bring would change a very reactive 'there's nothing we can do' response to a proactive one which would hold the stalker to account and keep track of their behaviour to protect victims and future victim's they move onto.
For once there would be an actual impact on the stalker's life - rather than the victim being forced to change everything about theirs.
Please share this petition with others and write to your MP and request that stalkers be proactively identified, assessed and managed by police and probation services and that they be included on the same register/database as sex offenders.
A huge thank you once more to all who have signed the petition.
More soon. Stay safe.
Laura