Women’s Equality Party founder says being stalked was ‘most terrifying experience’ as she calls for review into police handling of case

The founder of the Women’s Equality Party said being stalked was “the most terrifying experience” of her life as she called for a review into the Metropolitan Police for not taking her stalking case seriously.

Sophie Walker, who led the party from 2015 until 2019, told The Independent she was forced to move home due to fears her alleged stalker would put her and her family at risk.

The 49-year-old said she was subjected to stalking in spring last year – adding that her car tyres were slashed on a number of occasions and a brick was hurled through her window.

Ms Walker said the tiles of her roof were also smashed, while three fires were started at the back of her house and offensive graffiti was written on her property.

The person she deems to be her stalker was captured on a security camera outside her home during the early hours of the morning on one occasion.

Ms Walker says that her case was not investigated as a stalking case, despite her and her partner calling on the police to help over 10 times, forcing her to publicly call for help on social media. Only then, she says, did senior police officers finally look into her case.

The man she believes to be the perpetrator was never charged with stalking, due to “police failings” in the initial handling of the case.

Evidence was not properly investigated and incidents not connected as being part of a pattern of intimidating behaviour, she says.

Ms Walker said: “There were some really basic failures in the initial police response. I called repeatedly for help for what quickly became evident was a case of obsessive harassment and stalking.

“It was extremely difficult in the first place even just getting the police to attend. I remember calling the police saying: ‘Please will you come? I think these things connected.’

“Stalking is really, really scary. I was a pretty confident person,” she said. But, “by the time events had reached their peak, I would be lying in bed at night thinking – ‘If he comes in with a knife, what do I do?’ I have four children ranging from 10 to 18 and I had to send them all away to stay with different relatives.”

Ms Walker has written to the Independent Office for Police Conduct and Metropolitan Police, requesting a comprehensive review into frontline police officers’ failure to understand and identify the stalking she was subjected to.

Her lawyer Sophie Naftalin said the Met Police have responded to their complaint and have said they are investigating the issue.

The man arrested in the wake of Ms Walker’s reports was charged with two counts of criminal damage which carries a shorter sentence. He pleaded guilty to both counts.

She added: “It is a very different sentence. It doesn’t take account of the fear and dread. I moved house because I did not feel safe in my house. It is going to stay with me and my family for a long time. The smallest bump in the night wakes me up.

“Every time police arrived, there was a new team, and I had to start at the beginning. But I’m one of the lucky ones. First of all, I’m still here.”

Ms Walker said the experience her family suffered “as a result of an obsessive and controlling stalker” had ultimately been “life-changing”.

Her 10-year-old daughter was the first person to notice one of the fires behind the house.

“She came to find us, she was very scared,” the former politician added. “We are still talking about it now as a family. It had a big impact.”

Ms Walker noted after an “initial reluctance to attend”, even when police did come, the series of “events were not connected and did not form one single investigation”.

She added: “Essential evidence was left overlooked and ignored for weeks, and then lost. Behaviour that formed part of a terrifying pattern for me was dismissed by officers who did not understand its significance.”

Ms Walker said she backed calls for proposals to place serial domestic abuse and stalking perpetrators on the existing violent and sexual offenders register as pressure mounts on the government to introduce such measures.

“I think it is a very good idea,” she added. “I fully support the register, but what is really necessary is adequate training and proper processes so the police are able to charge suspects with stalking.”

Stalking is one of the most frequently experienced forms of abuse, with official figures showing one in five women and one in 10 men will be stalked in their lifetime.

Ms Naftalin, Ms Walker’s solicitor, warned the police’s failure to properly tackle stalking is a “systemic problem”.

“Frontline police officers have an inadequate understanding of the offence of stalking,” she claimed, and “do not properly investigate cases, missing opportunities for evidence gathering, letting perpetrators remain unaccountable and leaving victims vulnerable”.

“Sophie’s case is a powerful illustration of how even when there is an apparent will to investigate, the police are failing to identify stalking at the essential early stages,” Ms Naftalin added. “This complaint investigation is an opportunity for the Metropolitan Police to interrogate what is going wrong. Urgent change is necessary.”

The Independent recently revealed that calls to the National Stalking Helpline rose by 11 per cent during the pandemic. It dealt with almost 18,000 calls from March 2020 until February this year – a substantial jump from the just over 16,000 calls the stalking helpline received in the same period a year earlier.

A spokesperson for the Met Police has been contacted for comment.