The case of Helen Pearson shows police continue to fail victims of stalking

Officers missed countless chances to apprehend the man who went on to stab her – an apology after the event from Devon and Cornwall’s Chief Constable is meaningless

The Exeter woman was stabbed by neighbour Joseph Willis, who was jailed for life in 2014 (BBC)

These days, whenever there’s an example of gross negligence – generally involving social services, allegations of historic child abuse, construction of substandard housing, failures in hospital care or policing – events will follow an all-too-predictable pattern. Following the initial public outrage, an official inquiry will be announced. Then, bureaucracy will grind to a snail’s pace with months and probably years elapsing from the date that victims had their life wrecked.

The final icing on the cake will be when someone in authority stands in front of the gathered media and reads an official apology, using the four most useless words in modern Britain – “lessons have been learnt”, followed by “this must never happen again”. Along with the redundant word “so”, let’s ban all public servants from using such meaningless language.

Once, an official apology carried weight. These days, I’ve lost track of the number of councils who have apologised for children’s deaths at the hands of their abusive parents, or the care home bosses who didn’t realise elderly patients were being beaten up; not to mention police chiefs who said sorry for errors in controlling peaceful demonstrations and NHS Trusts who say there will never be another outbreak of a fatal infection or another unnecessary death – the list grows every month. In modern Britain, an official apology is about ticking a box, then moving on to more pressing matters like cost-cutting.

This week, my heart went out to Helen Pearson, who complained to the police 125 times over a five-year period and got nowhere. Her daily life was blighted and she lived in fear, subjected to a particularly insidious form of abuse – harassment by a determined stalker who made silent phone calls; slashed the tyres on her car and damaged the bodywork; left a dead cat on her doorstep; and daubed “Die Helen Die” in white paint near her home. Helen suspected her neighbour Joseph Willis, but there were no fingerprints on the anonymous abusive letters she received, and he was extremely careful not to be identified.

Helen’s living hell came to a brutal end only after Willis stabbed her repeatedly (scarring her face and body) with a pair of scissors in a churchyard near her home. He was jailed for life for attempted murder in 2014. The Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police finally apologised to Helen this week and she, understandably, reckons his words are “meaningless”.

This tragic case has followed the pattern I set out earlier – and it will be the same for many other victims of stalking. Police recorded 4,168 such offences in England and Wales in the year to June 2016, an increase of 32 per cent. Stalking now takes many forms and social media and the internet make it even easier to target and attack victims. The National Stalking Helpline has already received over 3,550 calls this year.

In Helen’s case, the internal police investigation (which seems to have taken the inevitable lengthy period) focused on three officers, one of whom has retired. Proceedings involving the other two are “continuing” and two more officers “have been given guidance and advice”. That sounds a complete whitewash. Once again, as often happens when an apology is issued, nobody seems to have actually lost their job.

Following campaigns by women’s groups, Amber Rudd introduced Stalking Protection Orders, which can operate like an Asbo on suspected perpetrators; sentences are to be increased from five to ten years. But stalking is still a very difficult crime to bring to court, as Helen’s case demonstrates. Last year there were only 194 convictions, although over 1,100 new prosecutions have been started so far this year using new guidelines issued by the CPS. They define stalking as behaviour that is “repeated, unwanted by the victim and which causes alarm or distress”.

But are the police sufficiently sympathetic to complainants?

Last January the comedian Rory McGrath pleaded guilty to harassing a married woman for 14 months, in spite of receiving complaints from the woman and her husband and the police. He received just a £200 fine and a ten-week sentence suspended for 18 months.

Rory McGrath pleaded guilty to one count of stalking and got off lightly (Creative Commons)

Girls Aloud singer Nicola Roberts was targeted for five years by an ex-boyfriend who threatened to “kill and burn” her, using 35 false social media accounts – he received a 15-month suspended sentence and a lifetime restraining order.

Stalking (like controlling behaviour) ruins lives and causes huge mental stress which can take years to recover from. On average, victims record more than 100 incidents of stalking before they report it. The law is gradually acknowledging the seriousness of the crime, but until the police are trained to act promptly to restrain stalkers, victims can still expect to endure prolonged misery.