Can anyone please advise practical help for stalking?

[sugarlake]

I am writing on behalf of a very dear friend who has just emailed me in an awful state.

I cannot give too much away re her personal details but the crux is that her former landlord (who made her and her husband's life hell, ruining their business, causing fear and terror, killing their livestock and finally driving them away etc) - he is continuing with the abuse despite their moving to a new part of the country.

What worries me is they live in one of the most remote parts of Britain and the police are non proactive to say the least.

My friend is terrified and called Women's Aid, who offered her a flat in a large city 300 miles away. My friend does not want to leave her home, husband or animals but does not know what to do.
She is in her late fifties and her husband is 10 years older.

I am about 250 miles away from her but want to help her with some practical advice and help her to feel less petrified. How can I help her?

She should get straight on to her MP and ask for an urgent meeting. They will be able to give the police a big kick up the pants and I guarantee that the police will be falling over themselves to help her after that.

Me and my family had a similar sort of experience being harassed and having property destroyed by someone with a grudge against the former owner of our property. We were not taken seriously as the police said "it is only property". As soon as our MP got involved they could not do enough to help us.

The police should be taking action under the new harassment legislation which is quite powerful. Unfortunately a lot of police forces instead treat these matters as purely property crime and so will not do much for you.

It sounds as if your friend's former landlord probably has mental health issues. In that case it is possible for him to be sectioned and detained indefinitely as long as the case is brought by the police in the correct way. In our case the offender was sectioned indefinitely with only the Secretary of State being able to authorise his release. Previously he had only been subject to derisory fines which meant nothing to him.

Please ask her to ring her MP now. She will be amazed at how quickly she is offered help.

Thank you, DancingHippo. I am so worried about her yet feel so far away.

Their former landlord is visiting their neighbour in a few weeks time and has made it known that things will get difficult. This was relayed to my friend by another neighbour (as is want to happen in remote communities) - the ex-landlord even threatened her through a national newspaper forum - a veiled threat but transparent enough for me to become scared for her.
This man seems above the law somehow. He is very wealthy and has some very high powered friends.

Womens Aid should be able to advise her how to apply for an Injunction to prevent the person coming near the property of the victim.

Lucinda - we had injunctions coming out of our ears when we were being harassed but they were of no use becuase you have to first catch the person who has breached the injunction in the act of breaking it, then find a way of actually getting them off the streets and keeping them there.They usually just get a fine and are then released.

When you are dealing with a person like this who does not care about the law you need some powerful people on your side who will use the power of the harassment laws to help you.

No point talking to ordinary police officers about this, their superiors will not let them "waste" resources to help you. You need the help of your MP to go straight to the chief constable to get something done.

My friend has just written that the police will phone the neighbour..... as nothing has happened yet.

I am worried as it is now the shooting season and the former landlord was with a previous'shoot' while my friend was hanging out her washing - no guesses where they aimed.

The police took hours to arrive but the landlord was not charged. Perhaps this was due to the well connected company he was with at the time.

I think she is in real danger.

I have advised her to contact the Chief Constable.

Sugar - this is the kind of crap response we had from the police as "no-one has been hurt YET".

Your friend will get a better response from the Chief Constable with the backing of her MP. I think if she tries to contact them directly she will simply be ignored.

Your friend also needs to keep a diary of everything that is happening - including threatening messages being relayed by neighbours - and get a good solicitor who will advise her on what the police should be doing, assist her with taking out injunctions, etc.

Even though injunctions are often ignored, they are still a useful record if you need to prove a pattern of harassing behaviour.

And if the police won't help, first the local MP, then the Daily Mail...? Make as big a fuss as you can, as much publicity as you can and the police will have to get off their arses.

My friend's latest email worried me a lot.

She is so demoralised and exhausted by it all that she is thinking of giving up. She told me that an ex neighbour of hers (who also moved to get away from that man) has been stalked in her new home which is at the other end of the country.
I don't think the ex neighbour wants to go for an injunction but two served on the same person would have some clout. It is easy for me to write but I feel so desperate for both of them.

The policeman who visited my friend told her she was being petty. God, I am so angry for her.

She can try and take out a civil action to get an injunction, and take him back to court herself for contempt of court if he breaks it. It is expensive but she should explore every way of getting free help that she can think of (Law Society, Bar Pro Bono Unit, any City firms with pro bono programmes, charities). At the very least, if the MP doesn't help a solicitor's letter to police might spur them into action.

If she and her husband haven't yet got a security camera at home they should look into getting one, caller ID and a recording facility on the phone, security lights, whatever helps them to record the behaviour and feel safer.

I sent her a link to this page and I think all the advice has helped her but she is still feeling terrified at the task ahead. It is daunting to be forced to face the bully and try and stop his every move, especially when he is so unpredictable.

Her husband has taken a bit of a turn and is being monitored at the nearest hospital and she is very vulnerable right now.

They are such a lovely, quiet, hard working couple.

Sugar - this is why I think she should speak to MP, she would have someone else doing the fighting on her behalf. I really think complaining to the police herself will simply be ignored as the police in your friend's area seem to have such a bad attitude.

I am SURE her MP will be very helpful, this kind of situation is bread and butter to them. All she needs to do is ring and make an appointment, explaining the urgency of the situation to the MPs office worker. They are usually very helpful.

I really wouldn't get involved in expensive private legal action at the moment, I feel it is unnecessary and probably won't be very effective.

Are the MPs still on recess?

She emailed two days ago but has had no word back.
She seems very low today and afraid but is angry at the policeman's patronising and inept attitude. It took him long enough to arrive.

I have passed on your advice and urged her to phone the MP's office direct.

I really appreciate all of you for trying help her.

Yes sugarlake she should ring the MPs office. Emails may not be checked that regularly and your friend needs to make sure they realise the urgency of the situation.

Don't know about recess but you should still be able to make contact with MP's constutuency office.

Please let her know she is not alone in this and there is help there for her. I can understand how low she must be feeling but she WILL beat this lowlife.

Hi,
I am the person referred to in this post, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my friend who started this thread and all those who took the time to make comment and advise accordingly.
Suffice to say, I have taken on board all that has been said here and I have instigated some legal action to try to sort out the problem.

I am going down the road of applying for an interim interdict with the power of arrest,
I do not believe that such as a non harassment order would work,simply because I have recently (today) found out that this person who is stalking and harassing me has also molested others in this way,

these other women have warned me to be careful when I am out alone,
they are afraid for me, but I am determined to nip this in the bud, as it were, before "he" has time to think about his next assault.
I shall keep you posted and thanks again. :)

Look up your local Police Force on their web site, look to see if they have a Crime Prevention Officer, Phone them up and request a senior officer in that section to come and visit you at home.

Ask for his advice on what you can do to maximise your safety.

One thing some Police forces do for people in danger of "domestic abuse" I believe is to install Alarms directly linked to the local Police Station. Ask for one of those alarms to be installed.

It won't be necessarily be classed as a domestic unless you have been in a relationship with him or are related.

I am surprised the Police are not dealing with this as a straight forward harassment....unless there is more to this we don't know about.

Hi,
Yes I do believe they do install alarms in some circumstance, however, I very much doubt they would do it for me, as I am married and living with my husband, albeit in an remote area and either way, by the time the police got here, whatever might happen will have happened and it most likely would be all over, he'd be gone and I am back to square one with no witnesses and no proof,

Of course there is always CCTV, there again if you intend to use it in a court of law, you must by law advertise the fact that you are using CCTV,
thus scaring the potential bully before he starts to bully,

I think I am living in a catch 22 situation and I believe that a court order would "stop him in his tracks" because, I do believe that although he has molested other women from time to time, none of them ever did anything about him.
I do however, appreciate your advice. :)

"It won't be necessarily be classed as a domestic unless you have been in a relationship with him or are related.

I am surprised the Police are not dealing with this as a straight forward harassment....unless there is more to this we don't know about".

It is not classed as domestic abuse, which is right because it is not.
The "perpretator" is a neighbour who has taken to targetting me for abuse,
I barely know him, I am new to the area
and no there has never been any relationshipp with him other than on an neighbourly basis.

It's not so much his ranting / tantrums that scare me, its the fact he is delving into my past and using that against me,
and to be honest, it is scary, because he has taken little bits of my history, concocting his own version of it and screaming at me about what he is / or is not going to do with it.

If it did not involve a previous violent person, it would not bother me at all.

Forgot to add that the police at least thus far are not dealing with my complaint, at all

Sorry really confused now....I thought a former landlord had pursued you across the country. Apologies if that is wrong.

Scurry I was just thinking that too.

New neighbour has been in touch with former landlord with the view of teaming up with him to cause us further harassment, that is correct.

Sorry this raises too many questions for me.

Do you owe money?

How does the new neighbour link to former landlord?

How can he delve into your past? What is the story here?

Do you owe money?
No.

How does the new neighbour link to former landlord?
I don't know, I don't know how he found out about our previous landlord, nor do I know why he bothered, I just know that he has threatened to bring him here.

How can he delve into your past? What is the story here?
As above, I am sorry I cannot say more in this open forum,

Seems our neighbour would rather not have neighbours,