Stalkers 'target 2million victims'

Stalkers are terrorising more than two million people a year, alarming figures suggest.

Not enough is done to help ordinary victims, whose families and friends are often unsure of how to give emotional support, say experts.

More than 1.2million women and 900,000 men were stalked last year, according to the British Crime Survey.

A total of 152,269 harassment offences were reported to police - a 26 per cent increase on the 2003 figure of 120,708. At the same time, however, the detection rate fell from 64 per cent to only 58 per cent.

Some stalkers move on to assault, rape and even murder.

Lasting psychological damage for survivors can include panic attacks and nervous breakdowns. Despite this human cost, many people still fail to recognise the gravity of the crime and victims are left to suffer in silence.

Now the devastating effects of stalking, which was not a crime until the 1997 Protection Against Harassment Act, are to be examined in a major new study.

Experts at Leicester University and the Network for Surviving Stalking charity will record victims' first-hand experiences with the help of an online questionnaire.

They will ask for views on police handling of cases, media reporting of the crimes and how victims could have been better protected in the first place.

Dr Lorraine Sheridan, the leading UK expert on the subject, said: 'Normal people, not celebrities, are the vast majority of victims.'

NSS director Tracey Morgan said that, even when cases reached court, victims had little say and the system was weighted in favour of perpetrators.

She added: 'Victims still come to us saying police told them they couldn't do anything. Friends and family often don't realise how terrifying it is to be constantly followed or watched.'