Ten Years of Stalking Laws: 'Changing attitudes is harder than changing the law'

To mark ten years since stalking became a specific crime in England and Wales Woman's Hour has a special programme looking at what’s changed in that time. We have exclusive data on how this is being dealt with by police. The BBC's Gemma Dunstan joins Emma Barnett in the studio to go through the findings.

One question we wanted to answer is what efforts have been made to get to the crux of the problem; to stop stalkers from stalking. Woman's Hour were granted extremely rare access to one of the three specialist stalking units around the UK. These units brings together police, psychologists, probation staff and victim advocates to decide the best steps to take to minimise the risk of stalking incidents. Emma Barnett visited the London Unit which has been in operation for 4 years. We are joined by the crime reporter, presenter and podcast host Isla Traquair. In her day job Isla is used to confronting murderers and travelling to dangerous places but it was in a quiet village in Wiltshire where her stalking ordeal took place. In August this year Isla's neighbour, Jonathan Barrett, was found guilty of stalking. This followed what Isla calls a 7 month period of terror from March to September 2021, she joins Emma in the studio.

How are police dealing with a huge rise in the number of stalking cases? Emma puts this question and others to to Paul Mills, Deputy Chief Constable for Wiltshire Police. He is also the National Police Chief's Council lead for Stalking and Harassment.

Presenter: Emma Barnett Producer: Emma Pearce