OHMYGOSSIP — Louise Minchin was on a “high state of alert” at all times during her stalking ordeal.
A man who admitted stalking the former ‘BBC Breakfast’ star was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison in December and he was handed an indefinite restraining order, and Louise has now told how it “doesn’t really touch the surface” to say she was “frightened” during the experience.
She said: “It was very clear from the messages that this person knew exactly where we lived and had stood outside our front door.
“To say I was frightened, just doesn’t really touch the surface.
“You are kind of on this high state of alert all the time. You don’t know who they are. So, you don’t know that that person standing next to you isn’t them.”
Louise’s daughter Mia has spoken for the first time about the ordeal, admitting she couldn’t sleep and was in “floods of tears” after seeing a number of messages on her mum’s Instagram account.
Speaking on ITV’s ‘Tonight’ programme, she said: “I’m logged into mum’s Instagram account and suddenly loads of messages started coming.
“They were all kind of just really offensive, calling us not very nice names and then they got much more graphic. It was the kind of actions that he wanted to do against me and mum, which got really personal and they weren’t nice to read at all.
“I was kind of terrified, all kind of shaking. I think my heart was beating really fast. I didn’t sleep all night. The entirety of the next day I was in floods of tears.”
Mia also admitted the ordeal has made her more conscious when she is out and about.
She added: “When I’m walking, I’m very conscious of who is behind me, especially not to have my headphones in if it’s dark and there’s no one else around.”
A Freedom of Information inquiry by the ‘Tonight’ programme, which was sent to all 43 police forces across England and Wales, showed 70,385 stalking offences were recorded in 2021, but only 237 Stalking Protection Orders or Interim Orders were issued.
The Home Office have told ITV ‘Tonight’ that rather than bringing in a national register they’re improving current systems “to better identify the risk perpetrators pose, and enabling more effective data sharing between the police and other frontline agencies”.
On Stalking Protection Orders, they said: “Expect all police forces to make full use of them and the Safeguarding Minister has written to Chief Constables whose forces haven’t applied for many of them to make that clear.”
‘ITV Tonight – Louise Minchin: The Truth About Stalking’ is at 8.30pm on ITV on Thursday (10.03.22).
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