You only had to listen to the victims in Can I Tell You a Secret?, the Netflix documentary based on a Guardian podcast by Sirin Kale, to gain vivid insight into just how disturbing stalking can be. Matthew Hardy used tricks of impersonation and identity theft to manipulate, humiliate and threaten multiple women on social media. But in one important way he was atypical. While some of his targets were acquaintances, others were strangers who lived hundreds of miles away. Much more common is the experience of being stalked by someone you know. Data from the Suzy Lamplugh Trust shows that in the year to March 2023, 66.5% of victims were stalked by former partners. Other perpetrators were friends or colleagues, while just 6% were strangers. Almost 90% of victims were female.
The extent of Hardy’s offending, which continued for 11 years, has led to an eight-year sentence. But this is exceptionally rare. Of 117,672 stalking reports to police in England and Wales in the year to 2022, just 6.6% resulted in a charge, and 1.4% in a conviction. Of those, less than a third resulted in a custodial sentence, with the average term around a year. The grim reality is that most stalkers get away with their crimes.
