40 years after estate agent Suzy Lamplugh disappeared, the charity set up in her name says the threat to women is as great as it was in 1986. The Suzy Lamplugh Trust still campaigns for personal safety and supports stalking victims.
Trust's work continues
Emma Lingley-Clark, Interim CEO of the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, said: "It's something that is actually a really sad fact that 40 years on from Suzy's disappearance, we are still having to do the work that we do around campaigning and supporting victims." She added: "Ideally, I think we'd all have hoped that by now, perhaps some of these issues might have gone away. But for us, the cause is still very much there."
After Suzy vanished, her mother Diana set up the trust to improve personal safety awareness. Diana and husband Paul both received OBEs in 1992 but died without learning what happened. No trace of Suzy has ever been found.
Stalking still widespread
The trust runs the National Stalking Helpline and campaigns on public sexual harassment and taxi safety. An estimated 1.5 million people are stalked in the UK. Around 40% of helpline cases involve friends, colleagues or strangers rather than partners or ex-partners.
Ms Lingley-Clark said: "From our perspective, it's about making sure that every victim is taken seriously when they do report. We would like to see more people come forward, we would like more support, so ideally, we would like everybody to have access to a specialist stalking advocate."
Police view on stalking
Detective Chief Inspector Teresa Foster, who leads the Met's cold case homicide squad, believes Suzy may have been targeted by a stalker after being made to sit in the window because she was attractive. She said: "I do think that she was targeted. She was put in the window because her employers thought she was attractive and would bring in people. I'm more inclined to believe that stalking side, that someone has seen her, a predator of some type, and then lured her into a false meeting."
Detective Superintendent Ian Martin, who leads on domestic abuse and stalking for the Met, said stalking has changed due to technology. He said: "The methodology is completely different now because of the technology that's available. We're seeing people tracked through online fitness apps, through social media, and through a number of methodologies that weren't even in existence back then."
Recognising stalking
Police use the acronym FOUR to help victims identify stalking: fixated, obsessive, unwanted, repetitive. Det Supt Martin said: "They should look out for people who are taking an interest in what may seem a mundane, day-to-day activity. Are there people that turn up at locations that they don't recognise and they repeatedly see them, or is it a partner? Is it an ex-partner who has tried to get back into their life?"
He added: "Stalking can lead to significant events and physical harm. So, identifying stalking cases early on, reporting them to the police is hugely important in a way that we prevent that further impact of injury taking place."
