CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews To Catch A Stalker: This stalking exposé ramped up the emotion but left out the facts
That's the gulf between Gen Z and the rest of us. It's not the lip fillers, nor the fact you probably remember Zara McDermott from Strictly Come Dancing instead of Love Island.
What makes the gap unbridgeable is her technique for slicing pizza. She uses scissors. And she's proud of it.
'It's a good idea, to be fair,' she crowed, snipping up her evening meal as she chatted to a harassment victim on To Catch A Stalker. 'I cut loads of things with scissors: bacon, cheese . . .'
What's wrong with a knife and fork? It's true many parents now regard it as harmful, even abusive, to ask their children to help with household chores. But is it too oppressive to teach them to use cutlery?
Zara was visiting Jen, a recruitment consultant whose life is being made hell by a man she met once, in 2022, when he answered a job advert. Since then, he has bombarded her with bizarre and sometimes threatening messages, from declarations of undying love to creepy sexual fantasies.
According to the Office for National Statistics, 80 per cent of victims are female, and more than 20 per cent of women in Britain have experienced stalking — two statistics that Zara didn't think to mention.
Jen's tormentor has been jailed three times for stalking her, and was sectioned in a psychiatric unit following his latest release. But Jen still lives in terror: the hospital is just 20 minutes drive from her home.
Clearly, he is mentally ill and requires treatment, but it's inexplicable that his health needs are apparently being prioritised over Jen's safety. Police have told her to 'use your common sense' to avoid being attacked, and this dismissive attitude seems typical of that displayed by many forces.
Perhaps we shouldn't be overly surprised: in the past two years, officers from Avon and Somerset police, the Met and North Yorkshire have admitted charges of stalking.
Zara didn't tell us that either, but this two-part documentary, aired as a 90-minute double bill on both BBC1 and BBC3, was more concerned with the emotional context than data and stats. When Jen promised she would try not to cry, Zara assured her, 'No, honestly, it's not a problem.'
In an ill-judged effort to heighten this sense of vulnerability, the camera kept zooming in so tightly on faces that the women's eyes and mouths filled the screen. Perhaps this is effective if you're watching on a phone, but the result is bizarre on a widescreen telly.
The show tipped over into melodrama when Zara spent a night at one woman's home, waiting to see if her ex would come and lurk in the bushes outside.
Whispering urgently in the darkness, Zara could have been presenting a ghost-hunting foray. The stalker failed to show up, and there was no paranormal activity either.
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The Guardian
36 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Glastonbury chanters or the Southport hate-tweeter – throw the book at one, you must throw it at them all
News that Avon and Somerset police have launched criminal investigations into the bands Bob Vylan and Kneecap for their Glastonbury sets reminds me that we have a severe prisons crisis in the UK, and that we need to build more of them. Perhaps we should build a special one for all the people we keep criminally investigating for saying, rather than doing, bad things. I'm pretty sure they have a few of those types of prisons in other countries. Although, it must be said that those are normally countries run by people we consider bad. Confusing! But look, maybe we're becoming the sort of country where we imprison lots of people for saying awful things. I don't … love this look for us, I have to say. But no doubt someone has thought it all through very, very carefully. If so, they could put the two nasty idiots from Bob Vylan in it. Obviously all of Kneecap, too. Maybe those guys would have their cell on the same landing as Lucy Connolly, the woman who was imprisoned for two years and seven months for a repulsive tweet in the wake of the Southport child killings. They could be joined by whoever at the BBC didn't pull the Glastonbury live stream on Saturday after Bob Vylan started their repulsive chants, given that Conservative frontbencher Chris Philp is now officially calling for the corporation to be 'urgently' investigated. I see Chris is also calling for the BBC to be prosecuted – so I guess he's already done the police investigation for them, and all at the same time as absolutely aceing his brief as shadow home secretary for where-are-they-now political outfit the Conservative party. In terms of Spewing Hate Into The Nation's Living RoomsTM, it must be said that the footage of Bob Vylan's offending set is still embedded into multiple stories on the MailOnline website, all containing an exhortation to 'watch the full video'. Should whoever is leaving the videos up on MailOnline also be investigated and prosecuted? Perhaps Chris Philp could adjudicate. Either way, let's keep a cell or five for them in the special new prison. After all, why on earth shouldn't we imprison a few journalists, too? In for a penny, and so on. Needless to say, embattled prime minister Keir Starmer has made time to have plenty of official views not just on the behaviour of the two bands, but on any future decisions to book them. If all you have is a hammer, everything is a nail – and if your big job before politics was being director of public prosecutions, then I'm sure everything looks like a prosecutable offence. It certainly did to the prime minister after last summer's riots in the wake of the Southport murders, when Starmer seemed to relish the response happening the best way he knew how: by rushing it through the courts. Connolly was one of those prosecuted, in her case for a manifestly revolting and racist but also clearly tossed-off post responding to a false rumour the killer was an asylum seeker, saying people could set fire to asylum hotels 'for all I care'. She admitted inciting racial hatred in court, but has since become something of a cause celebre for the fact that she is a mother with an otherwise clean record (and one who had lost a young child herself), and that she has got a harsher sentence for this tweet that she later deleted than some convicted rapists. I wrote in the immediate wake of the riots that it was clear that something big had happened in the UK – though it wasn't yet precisely clear what. Unfortunately, the prime minister seemed to think it was fairly simple. 'Let me also say to large social media companies and those who run them,' he said, albeit to some reporters instead, 'violent disorder clearly whipped up online: that is also a crime. It's happening on your premises, and the law must be upheld everywhere.' Sadiq Khan seemed to think it was something to do with the Online Safety Act not being 'fit for purpose'. In more successful hot takes, it was also the moment that Elon Musk test-drove his epithet 'two-tier Keir'. That one has stuck, and it will stick even harder if, for example, sublebrity band Bob Vylan don't get the book thrown at them in the same way that no-mark Lucy Connolly did. To be clear, I don't think any of the aforementioned lot ought to be in prison, however vile and unacceptable their behaviour was. But if you don't deal with them in pretty much the same way, then people are going to be talking far more loudly about two-tier justice again. This type of talk has already reached all the way into the Oval Office where, in February, vice-president JD Vance suggested to Starmer that the UK had a free speech problem. You might have seen that Bob Vylan have just promptly had their US visas revoked for what the deputy secretary of state called 'their hateful tirade'. But we can't expect consistency from the Trump administration. What we expect of our own country is infinitely more important. I used to think masses of legislation around what horrible things people could or couldn't say was a niche-application civilisational advance, but I have changed my view, and now fear we are sleepwalking towards a society where half the people will think certain incarcerated miscreants are political prisoners, and the other half will think a different bunch of incarcerated miscreants are political prisoners. I am very much for living in a country where we don't think we have political prisoners at all. Getting there isn't simple – but stopping travelling in the wrong direction would be a good start. Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. This article's URL was amended shortly after publication to remove draft text that was included in error.
The Independent
37 minutes ago
- The Independent
‘They stole it from us': How Spain can reclaim their moment after Luis Rubiales scandal
When the England team left the pitch after their last match against Spain, a 2-1 comeback defeat in June's Nations League fixture, there was one overriding feeling in the dressing room. 'They're just so hard to play against', was one exhausted view. Spain's ideology means they're seen as an almost singular challenge in the women's game. The England players enjoy the test, admire the players as icons, and know the world champions are the team to beat. Spanish manager Montse Tome has still rejected the description of favourites, in that way that coaches do to try and get elite teams playing as if they are starting from scratch again. Many of Spain's world champions would actually like to start from scratch in a different sense. This singular team want their own singular victory, independent of past troubles. 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The downbeat mood, and failure to get beyond the quarter-finals, felt all the more inevitable due to the injury to Alexia Putellas on the eve of the tournament. There was a worrying echo of this on the eve of Euro 2025, when Aitana was last week sent to hospital with viral meningitis. Some around the squad couldn't help feel deja vu. And yet it is maybe another sign of how fortunes have changed that Aitana was out of hospital and back with the squad by Tuesday. 'Everything's going well,' Bonmati said. The words around Spain's Lausanne camp now are 'tranquility' and 'stability'. Conditions have also changed, to go with the fact the team now play with the assurance that comes from true achievement. They've been there and done it, and that through hugely difficult circumstances. Now, the squad just don't have the same distractions. Many players finally feel standards have started to be elevated to club levels, as well as those of the men. 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In ' Se Acabo ', the players openly talk about how the changes caused by the 2023 World Cup were a greater victory than the trophy. They have now given themselves the platform for a purely sporting victory. Mariona says the camp is now about 'football, only football', as Putellas offered a touching message on the eve of the tournament: 'Now it's time to enjoy, compete and give happiness.' Maybe not to the opposition.
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
'Smell detectors' could be used to catch drug abuse - both inside and outside of prison
"Smell detectors" and AI cameras could be used to catch drug use inside and outside of prison. Tech companies have pitched the devices to prisons and probation minister James Timpson as a method to monitor criminals and prevent reoffending. A smell detector which uses synthetic brain cells and artificial intelligence to detect drugs such as spice or fentanyl was among the proposals. It could improve staff safety in prisons, and help detect if an offender in the community has breached their licence conditions. AI cameras could also be set up in offenders' homes in the community to check their behaviour while on licence. It comes as justice secretary Shabana Mahmood said emerging technology has the potential to "impose a digital prison outside a prison". Lord Timpson said: "We inherited a justice system in crisis and in need of reform. Prisons and probation are working in analogue while tech drives forward a new digital age. "That's why we have invited companies to present bold new ideas to help us deliver tough punishment and enhanced surveillance. "Embracing new technologies will help us to protect victims, reduce reoffending and cut crime as part of our plan for change." Other ideas that were pitched included software to help staff consistently input information on offenders and transcription tools to cut administrative tasks. Decisions on the plans are expected over the coming months, with successful proposals to be considered for rollout under pilot schemes.
