Welcome

(c) http://www.benlister.com

Hi, I’m Tracey Morgan,

I am writing this for:

• anyone being stalked/harassed
• anyone who thinks they’re being stalked/harassed, or for anyone who wants to help someone in that position
• Employees of the Criminal Justice Agencies and Lawyers who want to know what it’s like from the victim’s perspective.

I spearheaded the campaign by ACPO and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust which led to the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.
I was founder of Network for Surviving Stalking charity (though no longer associated with)
Supporter and co-presenter with Protection Against Stalking charity

1998 – present: Independent Advisor ACPO Working Group on Stalking/Harassment (voluntary)
2003 – 2006 Lay Member of Home Office Victims Advisory Panel (voluntary)

Speaker and trainer on the stalking issue.
Experienced media interviewee on the stalking issue.

I also have a full-time job so if you contact me, it may be a while before I reply.

If you are being stalked and need advice, please contact the National Stalking Helpline http://www.stalkinghelpline.org/ or on 0808 802 0300.

You should contact your local police for help.  If you feel in immediate danger, please call 999.

Tracey Morgan

 

Tracey Morgan created this site for victims of stalking and other interested parties.  Tracey Morgan will not be responsible for anything you do or do not do as a result of the advice and information on this site.  The advice and information is given as general guidance and should not be relied upon.  It is not intended as a substitute for taking legal or other professional advice.

Tracey Morgan is not responsible for the content of any websites with links on this site . 

Tracey Morgan is not responsible for any third party comments posted on this site and has the right to remove any correspondence deemed offensive or distressing.  

Why a register for stalkers is needed

I am disgusted that the register for stalkers & abusers has been voted out by MPs. When we discovered, in about June 1999, that my stalker had changed his name by deed poll to that of my former partner, I went to the police in relation to a breach of restraining order, citing breaching the “holding paperwork relating to friends/family” bit. The CPS said that a restraining order is there to “restrain not instruct” therefore he has his liberty to do this. At this point he had over 20 convictions relating to his stalking of me. This was only discovered when a documentary was about to be transmitted and he was in a relationship with a woman after coming out of prison with this new name. She didn’t know about his past and the publicity around the documentary was mystifying people because it was his face, but not his name so he told her that it was, apparently, me just being vindictive (imagine, me, having the ITV network at my disposal!). As a result of this loophole, I started a campaign for a stalkers register (this was when I was the lone voice, with the support of the Suzy Lamplugh Trust) and in 2000, I raised the need for one with then Home Office Minister, Charles Clarke, which is documented in the media that the Government would consider it. On 4th July 2001, he was jailed for life for trying to kill her. Perhaps, if the register had been in place, she would still have the use of 2 hands and be free of the psychological damage it caused. This lady is still alive, however there are many who are not because they weren’t aware of someone’s violent (physical or psychological) history. We have annual parole hearings and have to prepare for his possible release each time, yet there is still no register to protect anyone from him. Why are our lives not important enough to protect us from obsessed psychopaths? https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/16/anger-tory-mps-vote-against-register-stalkers-domestic-abusers

National Stalking Awareness Week 2021

Please follow The Suzy Lamplugh Trust for coverage of this year’s awareness week.

Sky News 19th April 2021

National Stalking Awareness Week starts tomorrow. I will be on Sky News in the morning talking about it.

Back to Basics

Questionnaire on Stalking

Please can you help Emily Grant with her MSc dissertation on stalking here Stalking Questionnaire

Thanks so much

National Stalking Awareness Week

As this awareness week draws to a close, please don’t let it stop you continuing to spread the word about stalking and its impact. Do it every day. If you hear someone telling a joke about stalking or minimising what stalking is about, I challenge YOU to challenge them. Stalking is not funny, it’s not flattering to have a stalker. It is terrifying. Would you joke about rape to a rape victim?

The Suzy Lamplugh Trust, as always, lead the way in this subject, and they have been doing so for many years; since my 2 case officers sat with Diana Lamplugh by the Thames in 1995 telling my story to her and asking for her help in highlighting the loophole in the law. It was at that point she realised that Suzy had been stalked before she disappeared. Our campaign for the law changed at that moment…Diana and the Trust were fully on board and relentlessly campaigned with us to highlight the gaps and the impact it was having on me, and many others who were coming forward at that time. The Trust has been at the forefront ever since.

As the professionals I have had around me retire, I hope they’ll still keep the word out there, and in my personal case, as we approach each parole hearing, those currently in the jobs all understand exactly what the impact is for a victim, their family and friends.

So many have joined the campaigns and raised their voices to highlight just how deadly stalking can be. As survivors – and there are many of us now – we can’t retire, we have to keep going, keep educating and fighting so that everyone understands what stalking is so that future victims don’t have to go through what we have been through.

Whether it’s your job, your profession, your vocation or your experience – thank you for your hard work which makes such a difference to victims and those around them.

MASIP Programme

Way back in 2005, I learnt about the creation of the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre [FTAC] in London which was pioneering a new way of working and looking at potential stalkers and threats to members of the Royal Family and of Government. It was members of the criminal justice system and health service working together to help manage risk of individuals to VIPs.

I was very keen to see this service for ‘the masses’ as it was actually tackling the problem and trying to minimise the impact on an individual.

At one point I chaired a meeting with members of FTAC and the ACPO Lead at the time, with the Home Office hosting, to ask FTAC to educate ACPO on their work and understand that this is what was needed for us all.

A number of years later the Hampshire Clinic came to fruition and then Cheshire’s project. I am so proud to have worked with members of both and look forward to seeing them develop along with other areas where the vital work can be replicated, stalking impact can be better understood, risk management more effective, the impact on the victim be reduced and ultimately lives will be saved.

For more details, click here : MASIP Programme

Stalking & Physical Violence

There are still so many myths surrounding stalking, stalkers and victims. Sadly, because of these myths, many signs are missed, many victims not taken seriously and many stalkers that are allowed to escalate their behaviour.

It is VITAL that as soon as a stalker exhibits obsessive behaviour, he or she is dealt with appropriately via criminal justice or health. The sooner the intervention, the more chance it has of stopping.

Sadly, many cases involve physical violence and it’s at that point it starts getting taken seriously. Remarkably, I still hear of cases where victims are told “come back when he/she has physically attacked you”. What is there not to get with laws and so much information around these days?

I know I, and many victims subject to psychological torture, have wished for a physical act of violence just to get it over with and to show there is damage being done. The constant, drip-drip effect that can go on for years of not knowing if you’re going to be killed today has a huge impact. You can’t have bandages around your mind, yet damage is prevalent.

Sadly, there are too many victims being physically assaulted and sometimes murdered because, maybe, it was felt that stalking is just a benign ‘nuisance’ crime.

National Stalking Awareness Conference – A Public Health Issue

The impact of stalking on a victim is huge; anxiety, depression, PTSD to name a few and some victims are driven to suicide by the relentless terror. It is not always ex-partners who are the perpetrators.

There doesn’t have to be any physical violence to have an impact – a common myth. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had to fight to get treatment, in fact, to get assessed! I was then diagnosed with severe PTSD amongst other things.

This should not be the case.

From research I did with the University of Leicester in 2005 (when I set up a Stalking Awareness Month aligned with the US), we found that an AVERAGE of 21 people around the primary victim were affected by the stalker. How much damage is being done? And what resources are there to help?

Link here for the conference details – happening today!

National Stalking Awareness Week Conference

Stalking & Mental Health

There can be no doubt that stalking has a huge impact on the mental and physical health of the victim.

My case was the test case for Grievous Bodily Harm (Psychiatric Injury) in 1996. It was the first time it was acknowledged that stalking had an impact on my health, despite starting in 1992, even though my stalker had not physically attacked me.

12 months previously, we had been in court with the same charge, which failed. It was felt that it was my emotional state of mind that was the problem! He literally walked out of court behind us, a free man. However, the stalking never stopped and so the Judge in March 1996 felt that there was evidence that, despite being told his harassment was having an impact on my life, he continued. My stalker had written a letter to me outlining what I was having to do; look from the porch to check for him, check the letterbox, and so on… The letter was read out in court and proved he knew what he was doing; trying to destroy me psychologically.

Once that test case was successful, people asked why I was campaigning for a specific stalking law. My answer was that, it should not be that a victim has to become damaged psychologically before a charge can be brought. Hence we campaigned and got the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, then an amended version in 2012 after a Parliamentary Inquiry when the word ‘stalking’ became a legal term rather than a colloquial one for harassment, which was causing confusion.  Serious cases, like mine and others were put in the same category as a hedge dispute which is why we really needed it separating; this was about murder prevention.

Despite being under a psychiatrist for the case, it wasn’t until 2010, whilst having counselling locally, researching it myself and asking my GP to refer me, that I was eventually diagnosed with severe PTSD, severe anxiety and moderate depression.

There is still so much work to do though, it was a fight to get treatment, even an assessment; initially I was told that, despite being the test case for psychological GBH, I was ‘not appropriate’ for the Traumatic Stress Service. Eventually they allowed me to have treatment.

Whilst on the Home Office Victims Advisory Panel 2003-2006, it was difficult to engage the Department of Health in understanding that victims of crime are damaged and need support.  I really hope things are improving.

If you work in the health sector, please spread the word and help your colleagues understand that it is vital for victims get the help they need – reduce the damage psychological and physical and, ultimately, save lives.