CAMPAIGNERS have raised concerns over how victims of stalking are being treated after a case where a woman harassed by her ex-partner was quizzed about her past sexual history in court.
Lucy - who did not want her real name to be used - told the Sunday Herald how her stalking ordeal began with a couple of unnerving phone calls from a withheld number and silence on the end of the line.
Soon the man she had once planned to marry began to plague her with endless calls, drive slowly past her house and suddenly appear in a random places she had gone to, such as a café. But to make it worse, when the police investigated and the case was taken to court, Lucy had to endure being grilled about her past relationships from years ago and sex life in court. “I feel a victim of the behaviour and I feel a victim of the court process,” she said.
Sandie Barton, national co-ordinator of Rape Crisis Scotland, which offers support for victims of stalking, said the case raised worrying questions about protection for victims of stalking.
She said: “Who is representing the victim and their needs? There is a big focus on domestic abuse and sexual offences, but stalking sometimes falls between that gap.”
Lucy, who is too afraid to use her real name, is one of the hundreds of people in Scotland who experience the nightmare of a stalking ordeal every year.The issue was in the spotlight last week – also National Stalking Awareness Week – with the horrific case of 24-year-old Alice Ruggles, who was murdered by her obsessive soldier ex-boyfriend. Edinburgh-based Lance Corporal Trimaan “Harry” Dhillon was jailed for 22 years on Wednesday after breaking into her flat in Gateshead in October last year and cutting her throat from ear to ear. He had terrified Ruggles and alienated her from her friends, but she had told police she didn’t want him to get into any trouble.
Lucy was also initially reluctant for the police to take action against the man she had planned to marry. She described it as a difficult “on-off” relationship, with her partner disapproving of everything, from her friends and family to hobbies such as running.
When she told him she wouldn’t meet him any more and blocked his number from her phone, the stalking behaviour began with silent phone calls from a withheld number to her mobile, later confirmed by the police to have come from him. She would sometimes switch her phone off, but had to leave it on for work purposes.
Lucy said her ex-partner also began to frequently slowly drive past her house and turn up at places where she was, such as a random café, and walk past staring in. It was only later she discovered he had hacked into an email account on her phone and was using that to track her movements.
“I didn’t feel safe in my house, I kept the curtains shut most of the time and every time I walked down the street I was looking to see if he was there.”
After six months Lucy went to the police and said she was pleased with their response. But when the case went to court there was a “new and different level of stress”, when she found herself being grilled on her past sexual history and relationships.
Her ex-partner was found not guilty of the stalking charges, a judgment which she was left baffled by and says left her “absolutely devastated”. However, she has not been harassed by him since the end of the court case.
A spokeswoman for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said some stalking cases would be dealt with as sexual offences - where the sexual history of a victim is generally inadmissible as evidence unless the court rules otherwise - but not all fall into that category.
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