Isla Traquair: 'My Stalking Hell' | This Morning

[Music] seven months former itv news presenter isla truckware uh was a prisoner in her own home all because of one man his name was jonathan barrett yeah he became obsessed and infatuated with her when she moved next door to him and just last week was convicted of stalking now while eyla joins us now to share her story welcome so lovely to see you thank you for sharing this story no i feel it's important to talk about it so oh yeah thank you well obviously when you're buying a new house it's one of the most exciting things ever we go and we have a look at the house we check it out we you know scope it first and you went to scope a new house and you met the neighbour next door and you had a terrible encounter tell us what happened well i'd already had the offer accepted but i took my mum to the area to go for a walk came back found that my car had been blocked in gate shot in a van parked in front he came out my mum has the mobility issues following two strokes so she's got a little mobility scooter and i said she needs to get in the car you need to come with me so you accuse me of trespassing onto his garden letting my dog foul there and i said i don't have the keys to the house i can't even access the garden so what i did was i felt uncomfortable this my other door had been accepted i was financially kind of you know committed but i went back two weeks later to try and i just i wasn't happy with it knocking the door and a woman answers and i'm appeased thank goodness and i said i need to clear the air he came round and i said please don't ever do that again and i need you to accept that just did not happen and so he was quite friendly after that and then you know it was that was in the october 2020 and then in the january i got the keys so initially i was quite happy that he was being more friendly after that initially so you went before you bought the house to have a look uh you had this altercation he was swearing he wasn't very nice and then with the real point you thought you know what i'm gonna pull out of this this sale did you ever think that well there was just that one incident before uh and i'd already had the offer accepted at that point so i kind of was committed but as i say i felt appeased by the conversation but then when i got the keys in january i started doing renovations so i wasn't living there but i was there every day morning till night painting knocking down walls i learned how to plaster i was very hands on myself and what i became aware of was that there was just an unhealthy interest in what i was doing he he was always outside the front or the back if i was there and always wanted to talk and it was i would like be carrying a 25 kg bag of plaster and saying i'm sorry i don't want to be rude but i need to go in the house but then there were certain comments being made about you said something about me being vain i was wearing animal onesies with you know a hat on doing the renovations covered in filth sometimes carrying a pipe that had poop in it you know this is not the glam job thing so i thought maybe he maybe i you know he maybe he'd looked me up or knew something about my background at what point did uh an unhealthy interest or or you know him being a little bit more than neighborly push over in your opinion to to behavior that you sort of you thought was slightly more sinister and uncomfortable yeah there was an incident that was brought up during the court case actually he had climbed over the back wall and came into my conservatory i wear headphones listen to podcasts doing the work so i got a bit of a fright and he sort of says you haven't eaten have you uh and uh i i said oh what you're seeing now is him actually naked in the garden this is after i get a camera and fence putting and he's putting a collapsed clothes horse against my fence that's a fence i had to put in to stop him that's where he climbed over there previously i don't know i thought it was a ladder when i first saw it this was triggering my motion sensors i was actually on the phone to police sergeant when that was going on so that's my house right there he's naked he can be overlooked by any of the other neighbors as well and there's children that live nearby so that was alarming anyway he came in this day and he said you've not eaten and i'm like uh you you like salmon don't you now he may have brought up something previous about butcher and i may have said i don't eat red meat but he'd clocked this right so he came in he came into my home through the back without me realizing and he'd come in before you come in the other at the front door but the door was sometimes open there's builders going in and out so i was kind of watching it's not okay so he'd been watching me he knew i was hungry and he said in court something like uh when he was giving evidence that my energy was flagging and that's when the magistrate said you've been watching her right so my conservatory sided onto his garden there's a glass brick window sided onto his garden so those are his key points and the other places were in the front of the house there's a lawn he could stand and look right into my bedroom where he parked his van he could stand look right down into my bedroom and this was just going on so it started with small things i tried to you know put in a bush put in some bamboo screening bamboo screening resulted in him um you know butchering my hedge which we could only assume was done in anger this was all brought up during the court case but of course if i hadn't videoed or photographed it you know be taken off the charge sheet this is a quite an uncomfortable question to have to ask because it shouldn't be you shouldn't have to do this but was it did you ever have a conversation with this partner i did i did absolutely um the first time he shouted and swore at me she witnessed it and i went over this is i had to delay moving in because of it and she explained to me this is just from her saying he had some mental health issues i believe undiagnosed so i had compassion yeah yeah and i was more tolerant but then when the after the hedge incident happened i said i'm really sorry i you know i want to respect you as a woman and your partner but you know your relationship with your partner but he's spying on me and i said when you're at work because she was out every day yeah and then she said no no it doesn't make any difference i know he's doing it it doesn't matter if i'm at work or not she said i've told him stop doing it he just likes to stare and she tried to minimize i said no i'm scared by this um and and she said she would talk to him so she went from kind of you know being sympathetic to me then saying i've got you know it's not my problem and it was after that she refused to be president she wanted me to talk to him and i said i'm not going to do that he's you know he'd had an aggressive reaction to me before and that's when i got the police involved but me phoning the police was not them coming over and sorting out it took a long time yeah tell us about the process so i phoned and i had a long conversation i was advised you know write everything down report every single instant to 101 either phoning up or through their email system um photograph and video safely whatever you can and keep a stocking diary so i'd already started taking notes i mean i have a catalogue of voice messages to my friends going oh my god he's doing this oh my god he's standing at the window so you know i literally could use my protected as well in that process no no no uh he well he was i would feel because they didn't go and talk to him and then i i i got he was behind me in a van i was trying to avoid him so i pulled into a farm truck to a farm a remote farm shop that's unmanned and he swerved in behind me he turns his van out he blocks the thing i did one day i didn't have my phone on me so i phoned the police again and then it took them another few days before they finally came in let's not forget you're in a rural area yeah so all these things are heightened right you're not around live on my own people my family aren't nearby covered people weren't even allowed you know all this was going on at the same time so eventually community police officers came over two women fantastic gave me a plan of action the plan of action was not deployed i'd actually moved out so uniform teaser trained officers were going to go over say stop doing this she'll get arrested she's getting a fence put in she's getting cameras put in behave but they didn't go when they were supposed to the guy who went said oh he seemed quite nice and polite said you've misunderstood and i said did you inform him the fence is going up because i want to prevent a big reaction he said you can tell him yourself and i said i've been told not to contact him he said i'm not going to be your go-between he got taken off the case a new officer gets on it i mean this is what i was dealing with i had to get in touch with my local counselor who contacted the inspector who phoned and apologized and it went on and on and on so this was the first phone call to police was the beginning of june um i just had to keep moving out it got worse and worse um uh you know there's so many instances it's hard to even tell it absolutely horrific what has the situation now well i moved out uh i moved out on advice of police stalking experts and a psychologist a criminal psychologist they said move out because there was no um there is actually a new law that came into force in 2020 called stocking protection orders their rapid response orders are supposed to be put in place with virtually no evidence just if someone's at risk of being stopped yes it's designed to protect you but wiltshire police i believe had one in place at the time i don't think the magistrate had ever seen one before wanted me to go in and give evidence and then i was told by the police lawyer if you go and give evidence in a civil court for this spo the criminal charges could be dropped because it'd be an unfair trial i'm a criminal journalist i knew all this you know i i had a knowledge i'd never covered stocking cases before i had no clue of the impact stocking would have and it's absolutely devastating so then finally um uh we got a court date but i was told this the cps wanted to drop the case because i'd moved to america i was temporarily living with my brother that was our solution well she's not there i own that house i can't live in it sure he's there it's awful so i contact the chief constable to ensure my case isn't dropped like these are the things normal people you wouldn't do to do that go those extra i know how to do it i'm a crime journalist i'm assertive i've been a television presenter i can talk in public i'm not scared to fight but it was breaking me inside as a person it was destroying me you know i anxiety panic attacks sleepless nights you know it's ruined my life and you are you're still living that as well now yeah yeah i'm still i had two hours sleep last night i was anxious about coming on i've never talked about my personal life and being a victim is not something i enjoy i'm speaking purely to raise awareness this is something that's not taken seriously by the police for sure do you worry that speaking out might make it worse oh yeah yeah i mean that i've already reported i'm gonna have to say an alleged breach of his restraining order the day after he was given it last thursday so friday i had to make a report the police oh oil through the website which i have still to you know i've got a we've ignored you know we've got it whatever so the spos aren't working the cps aren't taking it seriously when i was in court giving evidence i discovered from the prosecution barrister who was wonderful by the way she told me she didn't i mean the magistrates were like do you have evidence of the damage to the hedge and she said no and i'm like you've got the photos and videos didn't have them and she said i'd been let down so we scraped that conviction by there are very very few the last figure i looked up which was a couple of years ago is point one percent of convey our convictions and what will happen to him now he's been convicted so we have to wait for sentencing they've deferred for reports but because this is a section 2a which is without fear and harm four is with fear and harm the maximum he can get is six months and i really don't believe that's what's going to happen he'll get community service and the restraining order is for a year so it's not good but listen i know that was tough coming on but thank you for coming on because if you're sharing your story and people are going to be similar um then you know you couldn't you could prompt someone to pick up the phone i do need to say this cps says we understand how traumatic stalking can be for victims i know the criminal justice process can also be challenging experience for those affected the defendant was successfully convicted and we are committed to securing justice for those um cases where our legal test is met also the wilshire police said we take all reports of stalking and harassment incredibly seriously and would always encourage victims to come forward thank you for sharing your reality that you recognized but yeah thank you thank you for having me

Channel: This Morning

Views: 144,506

Keywords: this morning, this morning itv, holly willoughby, phillip schofield, this morning funniest moments, this morning interviews, alison hammond, itv

Id: q_3n5qUsDgk

Length: 11min 25sec (685 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 11 2022