UK News: Minister for safeguarding unveils measures including ‘right to know’, ensuring police tell victims the identity of online stalkers as soon as they can
Good morning. Jess Phillips, the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, was the government voice on the morning broadcast round. She says she is unveiling six measures to protect the victims of stalking, including “right to know” guidance intended to ensure that the police tell victims the identity of online stalkers as soon as they can. Speaking on Times Radio, Phillips said:
I have been a victim of stalking, and I wasn’t told [the identity of the stalker]. I didn’t have the right to know. And in most of the cases of my stalkers, they made it clear who they were as part of their desire to control and frighten me. I’m afraid to say that I’ve had more than one in my life.
This was a case raised by Nicola Thorp, where somebody had been stalking her over multiple identities online, and when they said the police told her that they’d found out who it was, they then told her that they couldn’t tell her who it was.
And so everybody became her stalker – the person she was sat next to on the street – and already, when you’re living through something as harrowing as somebody stalking you and making you feel frightened and anxious, the idea that then you have to distrust all of the people around you as well just seems like a terrible added burden … and so that is what we’re going to eliminate. Continue reading…
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