A woman who was harassed by a man who threatened to rape her and her children has revealed that police assured her he was a “harmless homeless guy” when she initially approached them with her concerns.
Speaking on ITV’s Stalking: State Of Fear, which airs on ITV1 and ITVX at 9pm on Tuesday, Caroline opened up about the horror she endured with a patient that left her plagued with anxiety.
He now takes a number of safety precautions, including alarm systems, a baseball bat and a guard dog.
“I took care of a patient and for some reason he became obsessed with me,” Caroline told the show.
“He spoke as if we were in a relationship and he truly believed we were.”
Speaking on ITV’s Stalking: State Of Fear, which airs on ITV1 and ITVX at 9pm on Tuesday, Caroline opened up about the horror she endured with a patient that left her plagued with anxiety.
Initially, police said he was a “harmless homeless guy and nothing to worry about.” The officers told Caroline “they were going to talk to him and everything would stop,” but things only got worse.
“Then I would call on the phone and tell my colleagues all the things I wanted to do to myself.
“He wanted to rape me, cut my throat and rape my children.”
Things escalated and Caroline admitted that it got to the point where she was “not answering her phone” or even going out alone because she would suffer panic attacks while she was away.
She was too scared to even bathe or shower unless someone else was home.
Eventually, Cheshire Police intervened again and arrested the stalker, where he “admitted everything”.
However, police “mishandled the bail conditions of Caroline’s stalker” and provided her home address and personal details.
“I felt like I was being served on a plate,” he said. ‘[Before,] he only knew where he worked.
He now takes a number of safety precautions, including alarm systems, a baseball bat and a guard dog.
‘I could avoid work, but you can’t avoid home. The police apologized, but they couldn’t undo it. The advice they gave me was to live as if he were outside.”
Caroline said her protective dog is “the only reason she can sleep now.”
“I have alarms, CCTV, but none of that allowed me to rest or relax in any way,” he said. “She has changed my life.”
Ultimately, her stalker pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two months in prison. Cheshire Police told the documentary they have resolved Caroline’s compensation claim for the data breach and understand the distress she caused. They now have a specialized stalking unit
Other victims also shared their heartbreaking encounters with the victims in the documentary.
A woman, whose stalker placed a tracker on her car, causing her hair to fall out due to stress, was questioned under caution by police after the man reported her for harassment.
Elsewhere, a woman who calls herself ‘Louise’ has had to change her appearance after dealing with her stalker, who pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing, for years.
“I would say it’s not fear, it’s terror,” he said. ‘The first episode of harassment was waiting for him outside my house, he was sending unwanted messages.
However, police “mishandled the bail conditions of Caroline’s stalker” and revealed his address and personal details.
‘Threats… smear campaigns, his friends were contacting me. He had been watching me, he knew when I was home, he knew when my kids were home.
Louise even paid £9,000 to obtain a non-harassment order against him, which he breached almost immediately and was later released on bail by police.
“You feel like you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place because you have the bully on one side threatening you, and you have the police on the other side, maybe not necessarily believing you,” he added.
The documentary also spoke to the parents of Gracie Spinks, 23, who was murdered in 2021 by Michael Sellers, a former colleague, four months after she told authorities he was stalking her.
While Derbyshire Police warned Sellers to stay away from Gracie, officers “failed to act” when weapons were found near where she kept her horse, Paddy.
“If they had put two and two together, connected the dots, and realized that there was Gracie’s camp, she complained about the harassment and this person, they would have gone back to Gracie and warned her about the cruelty and the horrible man.” “That’s what it is,” said his father Richard. “We wouldn’t have let her go anywhere alone.”
Since Gracie’s death, her family and friends have launched a campaign to raise awareness about bullying.
“I didn’t really realize how serious the problem was and that it wasn’t being addressed that often, but that it continues all the time and is actually getting worse,” he stressed.
Stalking: State Of Fear talks to victims of stalkers about how being attacked has destroyed their lives and follows the women’s attempts to get justice.
On the programme, victims spoke about the difficulties in getting police to take harassment cases seriously, with only one in 20 reports leading to a conviction.
Stalking: State Of Fear ITV1 and ITVX 9pm Tuesday April 30.
