Kym Marsh backs The Sun’s campaign to change stalking laws after one million people fall victim every year
Sign the petition to call for Stalking Protection Orders which would allow police to take action more quickly
CORRIE star Kym Marsh last night called on Sun readers to back our campaign to stop sick stalkers. A staggering one million men and women fall victim every year.
Dozens of vulnerable women have been murdered before cops could intervene. The Sun is calling for a change in the law to help police move more swiftly.
Kym, who has twice been targeted, is joining forces with The Sun's Stop A Stalker campaign and is urging readers to sign our petition backing an MP’s bid to increase police powers to stop stalkers — before they go on to kill.
She said: “People think stalking only happens to celebrities because they’re in the public eye. But it’s happening to a huge number of people and is much more of a problem than we think. These people need to be stopped before they kill.
"It can happen to anyone and not just women. It happens to men too. What happened to me was very scary. I feared for mine and my children’s safety. I was shocked there wasn’t really anything that could be done to stop it.”
Figures suggest more than a million people are stalked every year. One in five women may be victims and one in ten men. But last year just 806 stalkers were prosecuted and sentenced.
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The Sun Says
STALKING has changed with new technology, but its horrendous impact hasn’t.
So our laws need to keep up.
Today we highlight case after case in which stalkers have been identified but cops were powerless to stop them.
We urge you to sign our petition and back the call for tougher police powers.
That’s because their actions, while terrifying and intimidating, often falls just short of breaking the law in the early stages. However, evidence shows many stalkers will escalate their actions until they injure of kill.
Tory MP Sarah Wollaston has a Private Members Bill in Parliament that calls for the introduction of Stalking Protection Orders. They would allow police to go to magistrates at the first hint of stalking for an order warning an offender to stop or face jail.
We want Sun readers to sign our petition urging the Government to throw its weight behind Dr Wollaston’s Stalking Protection Bill to make sure it becomes law. Kym was the victim of an obsessed fan for nine years.
The fan contacted people online posing as her — and even duped one man into believing he had arranged a date with the actress. Fake social media accounts were set up using the names and photographs of her children. But the police could not act because most of the stalking was not deemed to break the law.
Mum-of-four Kim, 42, whose Corrie character Michelle Connor was plagued by a stalker, said: “I was shocked when I was told that what was happening to me wasn’t a crime — even though someone was taking over my life.
“There was a fake Instagram profile of my daughter Polly when she was six. It had photographs lifted from my family’s Twitter accounts or taken when we’d been out in public. I came off Facebook a while ago, but there are still fake accounts pretending to be me.”
“The stereotype of a stalker sitting outside your house or following you around is outdated. The online world makes it so much easier for stalkers to ruin lives.
“The Stalking Protection Bill is really important. While there will always be obsessed people, at the moment it feels like nothing can be done. So stalkers think, ‘Oh it’s OK. I can just carry on.’ They think nothing will happen to them. This bill might make people think twice about what they’re doing because once they are told not to contact a person they could be sent to jail if they do so.”
Kym’s ordeal began when she got home to find flowers on her doorstep with a note saying: “Dear Kim, hope you’re feeling better, sorry you couldn’t make our date. Lots of love, me.”
She said: “I freaked out. This had come to my home address. I called the florist who said they weren’t allowed to give me details because of client confidentiality.”
Kym contacted police. They discovered an obsessed fan had been posing as Kym online for years, using her stolen pictures to set up a convincing facade. The faker contacted others posing as Kym and convinced one man she was interested in a date.
Kym said: “The stalker had been stealing my photographs and pulling the wool over this man’s eyes. Thankfully, this did stop when the man realised he hadn’t been chatting to me — but too often you read stories where it doesn’t stop.”
On another occasion an online weirdo kept putting the faces of Kym and other Corrie stars on pornographic images. Kym, who was sent some of the lurid images,said: “It was horrific. Luckily police did catch this guy and he was convicted.
“I hope this campaign can help people recognise if stalking is happening to them. It might also make perpetrators realise the harmful impact of what they’re doing. Maybe this will deter them.”
Police say one in three stalking campaigns involve violence and around 55 per cent of stalkers go on to reoffend. One study of 300 UK murders found stalking links in 94 per cent of them.
If successful, Dr Wollaston’s Bill would mean a Stalking Protection Order could be issued before a crime has been committed. If the individual then breaches the order by contacting the victim, they would be committing a criminal offence with a custodial sentence of up to five years.
Kym is one of a string of celebrities whose lives have been made hell by stalkers.
TV presenter Christine Lampard, 39, was too scared to go out alone after she was targeted by a man who sent sinister letters, tweets and turned up at her home. Girls Aloud star Nicola Roberts, 32, was subject to over 3000 threatening messages from an ex-boyfriend.
Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis, 47, suffered a 20-year stalking ordeal at the hands of Edward Vines, who she met at university.
BGT judge Amanda Holden, 47, was also inundated with unwanted gifts and notes from deluded Miguel Bellacosa, 26, who believed she was in love with him. The National Stalking Helpline responded to 4000 calls last year.
Rachel Griffin, of the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, said: “We hear from victims who say offenders are not being correctly identified as stalkers and victims are being left in high risk situations. This failure to recognise the specific impact of stalking can be as traumatic as the stalking itself.
“We see Dr Sarah Wollaston’s bill as providing fast protection for victims while a case is being built. But it must be accompanied by comprehensive training for criminal justice professionals to best support victims of stalking.”
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Shana Grice, 19
SHANA’S throat was cut by ex-boyfriend Michael Lane, 27, in Brighton in August 2016.. Cops did not act when she complained about him.
Kirsty Treloar, 20
KIRSTY was stabbed to death in Hackney, East London, just weeks after giving birth to her daughter.
Her ex-boyfriend Myles Williams, 19, had repeatedly sent threatening messages.
Mary Griffiths, 38
MARY, a fitness instructor from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, was killed at her home in 2009 by her stalker John McFarlane, 40, in front of her children.
Kerri McAuley, 32
KERRI, a mum-of-two from Norwich, was murdered in January 2017 by former boyfriend Joe Storey, 27, who had plagued her with texts and calls.
He attacked Kerri in her own home.
Molly McLaren, 23
MOLLY, from Kent, was stabbed 75 times in her car by ex-boyfriend Joshua Stimpson in June 2017.
Stimpson had a history of stalking two previous girlfriends.
Cheryl Hooper, 51
CHERYL was shot and killed outside her home in Newport, Shropshire, in January this year by a 45-year-old man.
Cheryl was believed to have moved there to flee from a stalker.
Katrina O'Hara, 44
KATRINA, a hairdresser in Blandford Forum, Dorset, was murdered by ex-lover Stuart Thomas, 50, in January 2016.
She couldn’t call for help as detectives had seized her phone.
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Are you being stalked?
IF you are a victim of stalking, tell a friend, secure your social media, contact the police and call the National Stalking Helpline on 0808 802 0300.
To support The Sun’s Stop a Stalker campaign and back the Stalking Protection Bill, please sign our petition at
Clare Bernal, 22
CLARE was killed at department store Harvey Nichols in 2005 by security guard Michael Pech.
They briefly dated but Pech went on to launch a campaign of harassment against her. He was arrested and charged, but broke his bail conditions, following her to the beauty counter where she worked.
Hollie Gazzard, 20
HOLLIE was killed by former boyfriend Asher Maslin, 22, in 2014 in Gloucester — a few days after they split up. He had sent threatening text messages and stolen from her bank account before stabbing her 14 times in the neck, torso and chest at the salon where she worked.
She complained to police, but was killed days later.
Alice Ruggles, 24
ALICE died at the hands of ex-soldier boyfriend Trimaan Dhillon, 26, in Gateshead, Tyne & Wear, in October 2016 after he slashed her throat.
He repeatedly left her gifts and harassed her in the two weeks before she died.
Alice contacted the police, who initially registered the crimes but did not look into them before she was killed.
Jane Clough, 26
NURSE Jane had been abused by former partner Jonathan Vass for over a year.
He was on bail accused of raping her when he stabbed her more than 70 times at the hospital where she worked in Blackpool, Lancs, in 2010.
Vass, 30, had stalked her online, monitored her posts and had repeatedly tried to talk to her.
Gemma Dorman, 24
GEMMA was killed in an attack by former boyfriend Vikramgit Singh in Battersea, South West London in 2010. He was an obsessive who had Gemma’s name tattooed on his back.
Singh, 26, stabbed her weeks after bombarding her with love letters.
Tracey Donnelly, 42
TRACY, a barmaid, and her daughter Louise, 23, were stabbed to death by Tracy’s stalker ex-boyfriend in March 2011 while sleeping at their home in Sheffield, South Yorks.
They had moved to get away from Rekawt Mahmood Salih, 25, but he caught up with them.
Tracy had informed the police in 2008 of Salih’s behaviour after she said he beat her in a domestic attack.
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Stewart Taylor, 33
STEWART was murdered by his girlfriend’s stalker Frank Moore, 43, in 2011 at his home in Edinburgh. Moore had been stalking ex-girlfriend Lynsey Methven, who had recently partnered up with Stewart.
He sent abusive messages and threatened to kill the pair for weeks.
Lynsey, 31, survived the attack — but she was left with permanent injuries.
Help cops to help victims
By Dr Sarah Wollaston MP
STALKING is a crime of persistence characterised by fixation and obsession, it can continue for decades and has a devastating effect on the lives of victims.
It can happen to anyone – men and women – and in many cases may follow a seemingly trivial encounter.
Stalkers not only target their intended victims but very often extend this to contacting those surrounding them, undermining their relationships with friends neighbours, work colleagues and family, and leaving victims no safe space.
The Internet has opened many more avenues for stalkers to inflict their misery, spreading their poison through social media and often via multiple false identities. Stalking also costs lives as threatening messages risk escalating into actual violence.
At present those who are victims of stalking have to take action themselves. It is essential that the police look at the wider pattern of behaviour, identify stalking and take it seriously.
My Stalking Protection Bill would make that easier. It would take the onus off victims and allow the police to step in at an earlier stage, before the stalking behaviour becomes deeply ingrained.
The police could apply for a Stalking Protection Order in a magistrates’ court based on the civil standard of proof. This would set out clearly that the stalker must not contact their victim either directly or indirectly through those around them.
This would include contact by email and via social media from anywhere in the world and would force stalkers to register their address and any online aliases.
Breaching an order would be a criminal offence punishable by up to five years in prison. SPOs could also set out a requirement to attend psychiatric assessment or take part in a perpetrator programme.
SPOs are not intended to replace a prosecution for stalking, where the criminal threshold has already been crossed, as this now carries a sentence of up to ten years in prison in the worst cases.
My private member’s bill would however allow an order to be put in place whilst a case was being prepared for court, to protect victims from further harm.
Stalkers leave their victims feeling powerless and frightened and it is time to take action to put an end to their crimes and to stop this dangerous behaviour escalating to violence.
I welcome the way that the government has speeded up the legislation to criminalise the humiliating and degrading practice of upskirting.
I hope they will now do the same for the Stalking Protection Bill.