Three years – and thousands of messages and voice notes – later, Jen is terrified at the forthcoming release of her stalker from prison, the third sentence he has served for harassing her. Last time, he called her within two hours of being released. During a police safeguarding meeting, she confesses to sleeping with a kitchen knife: “I’m on high alert. My head is totally fuzzy, and I’m just panicking. My whole body is shaking.”
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If the title suggests a “To Catch A Predator” style undercover operation, that is misleading (although McDermott does accompany the Met’s Public Protection Unit on an arrest attempt). Her focus is rightly on understanding the impact of stalking on victims, speaking to brave women, whose cases are active and ongoing, about the enormous toll that this crime takes.
For Laura, her ex being convicted of stalking has not helped matters. As he serves a suspended sentence, she repeatedly catches someone watching her home on her Ring doorbell and is followed to the supermarket.
All of those featured clearly feel comfortable opening up to McDermott even in their lowest moments (Photo: BBC/Chatterbox)
Ultimately, McDermott does not do much here other than listen, but that still feels important, given how difficult these women find it to prove what is happening to them and to be believed. All of them speak to the psychological torment of being stalked: the relentless and endless violations of unwanted contact, the manipulation contained within the messages, and the creepiness of the faux intimacy.
To Catch A Stalker is not a documentary that probes the root causes of this crime nor especially challenges the systemic issues around serving justice, but it effectively and empathetically captures the inordinate, long-lasting damage that stalkers cause their victims.
To Catch a Stalker is available to stream on BBC iPlayer
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