Stalking victim tells of her pain

Tracey Morgan was stalked over a nine year period

Tracey Morgan, a former victim of stalking, went on to set up a charity for other sufferers.

She described her nine-year ordeal to BBC News Online.

We were work colleagues - He was a depressed loner and I felt sorry for him.

We would go shopping and have lunch together - I was doing him a favour.

But at some point I became his hobby. I don't know exactly when it started.

At first I thought I was going mad and being paranoid. I didn't take it seriously.

I only realised something was wrong when I found that I was seeing him everywhere.

When I told him not to do something he would do it just to prove he could.

For example, he was told not to go near me, or my home and husband. So he did.

My husband couldn't couldn't cope with the constant harassment and the change in my personality that it caused. Tracey Morgan, stalking victim

Every day something would happen - I would be followed and receive silent phone calls. My home was even broken into and listening devices were placed in the house.

At first I didn't know who it was, but I had my suspicions.

It started taking over my whole life and I was terrified. I started taking sleeping pills and anti-depressants.

I tried to rationalise the irrational. I thought stalking only happened in films and certainly not to usual people.

Threats

There was no overt violence, but it was always threatened.

My family was also affected, as were my husband's.

The stalker accessed public records and would find birth and marriage certificates which he would send to members of our families on significant days.

My husband couldn't couldn't cope with the constant harassment and the change in my personality that it caused.

It broke my marriage in the end. My husband and I were together for three years before the stalking started in 1992. He left two years later.

The police were fantastic but realised there was no law to stop him. I felt helpless.

Legal changes

After I went public with my case in 1995, I started receiving letters from people with similar problems. I started to write back and the Network for Surviving Stalkers grew out of that.

The charity helped to bring about changes to the law and the Protection from Harassment Act was created in 1997.

My ordeal started in 1992 and it continued on-and-off until my stalker was jailed for life in 2001 for the attempted murder of another woman.

By the end he had 20 convictions related to his stalking of me.

We became a registered charity in 2001 and are hoping to expand.