A shocking investigation has laid bare a disturbing trend where perpetrators of domestic abuse and stalking are hiring private investigators to track down and harass their victims. This practice, described as "abuse by proxy," allows abusers to continue their campaign of terror while keeping their own hands seemingly clean.
The Unseen Threat to Survivors
Noor Da Silva, deputy safeguarding lead at the University of Northampton and manager of a sexual and domestic abuse service, has voiced profound alarm following the revelations. She emphasises that stalking is not a minor concern but one of the clearest predictors of intimate partner homicide. Victim-survivors who report stalking behaviours are frequently identifying a genuine and imminent threat to their lives.
To escape, survivors often take extraordinary safety measures. These include legally changing their names, abandoning careers or education, moving across the country, and fleeing into refuges to live anonymously. Despite these drastic steps, their safety can be completely undermined if an unregulated investigator is paid to find them.
A Crisis of Accountability, Not Expertise
The most startling finding from the investigation is that 64% of private investigators implicated in these cases are former police officers. These individuals were originally trained to protect victims of crime. This fact reveals the core issue is not a lack of professional skill, but a profound lack of accountability and ethical oversight.
"It is horrifying," writes Da Silva, "that those at the highest risk of serious injury and fatality, located in refuges for their safety, can be found because someone with no licence, oversight or training was willing to take a perpetrator’s money." The skills once used to safeguard victims are now being deployed to assist perpetrators in evading the law.
An Urgent Call for Statutory Reform
Da Silva and other campaigners are demanding immediate legislative action to close this dangerous loophole. Proposed reforms include:
- A statutory bar preventing investigators from taking on cases involving the physical surveillance of a current or former partner.
- A legal duty for investigators to decline any instructions that show the hallmarks of domestic abuse or stalking.
- Mandatory training in domestic abuse, stalking, and harmful practices like forced marriage and so-called "honour"-based abuse as a strict condition of obtaining and retaining a licence to practise.
Without such robust regulation, the private investigation industry remains a readily available tool for abusers, directly endangering the lives of those trying to rebuild in safety. The call for reform underscores that protecting victim-survivors requires closing every potential avenue their persecutors might exploit.
