She was Murdered by her Obsessed Stalker Ex | The Devastating Case of Clare Bernal

claire banal a shy successful young woman everyone that met claire just loved her she works at world famous department store harvey nichols as does former slovakian soldier michael pesch just by looking at him i didn't get a good feeling i never got a sense that she'd fallen in love with michael she was very flattered by his attention then claire's world closes in 50 texts a day wherever claire was he was waiting on her doorstep if you report me i will kill you following her home from work never once did we think that he could possibly carry out his threat it turns into a nightmare he is batshit crazy and he is dangerous and he is unstable and he's obsessed [Music] 22 year old claire bernal is on her way to london to interview for her dream job as a skin care consultant in london's exclusive department store harvey nichols [Music] claire's with adam ward they became best friends whilst working together at a local shop in tunbridge wells we met at the train station she'd prepared sheets and sheets of a4 paper that she's hand written out and on the hours train journey to charing cross she was saying can you test me on this can you test me with this and we're literally going through page after page off the page testing her and then once we've done it we do it again she was so nervous about about the interview and the job and we took the tube to the department store and i said right okay give me a call when you're done claire leaves the interview and immediately calls adam she said oh i don't know if i've got it i don't know how well i've done she was full of self-doubt but of course she got the job and i never doubted that she would claire goes home to her mum trisha to tell her the good news about her new job even when she was 12 years old she was really interested in makeup and she used to you know play around with and she was far better than i was and she naturally wanted to sort of go into that line of work claire often confided in her cousin who she grew up with in tunbridge wells she was phenomenal with makeup she has this amazing portfolio of all her makeup creations people recognize that she had a really good gift she always had a passion for the beauty world when she got the job she was made up she absolutely lived and breathed it she always looked flawless but she never looked over made up it it was though it was just completely natural she had a real talent for that [Music] [Music] claire moves in with two other girls they all work together at harvey nichols they're renting a flat in dullich village south east london [Music] claire was very excited about moving to london it was showing her independence and and she settled very quickly in this this flat and as and when we tried to see each other mum and daughter as much as possible and we were on the phone most most days when she got offered a position at harvey nichols i'd imagine that that would just be like a great opportunity to leave hometown and spread her wings and experience like a very different life she wanted to be in the city living the life and when you're that young it's the dream is that you want to live in the city you want to be going out to the bars and the nightclubs and you know living that that lifestyle at work claire's incredibly popular and everyone warms to her everyone that met claire just loved her she was a very gentle soul i can't think of a nasty bone in claire's body and i really can't i never heard her say ill of anyone she used to get hurt by people you know disappointed by people but she never said anything bad about it was good fun to be around but we used to giggle and laugh about the most silly stupid things she was also very girly a super feminine person very kind very sweet really angelic she was really happy to be working at harvey nichols i mean it's probably the most prestigious place to work so she was always incredibly proud to say where she worked and who she worked for everything is looking up for claire she's loving her new job and is really happy in her dullich flat [Music] claire is at the beauty counter when she's approached by one of the store security guards michael pesch they get chatting and he asks her out on a date claire just casually mentioned that there was a man at work who who was pursuing her and at that time i to be honest with you didn't really take too much notice because men were always pursuing my cousin he was a bit older than claire he was a good-looking chap and when he asked claire out she was quite flattered and agreed he said nice things to her he talked about them being together claire was so unaware of her beauty and it was funny because we'd be walking down the street and i would notice heads turning and i know that it wasn't because of me and she wouldn't have a clue at all claire wasn't the most confident person she would be the absolute last person to realise when a guy was interested in her and she'd always be quite quite shy about it and quite coy she had no idea claire and pesh begin to see each other outside work he's infatuated with her straight away he's very attentive to her complimenting her clothes and her shoes claire's very flattered the relationship i guess seemed pretty innocent and normal with the whole like asking someone out and then going for a coffee or so and just very casual michael pesch is a slovakian and had moved to the uk two years earlier [Music] he started working as a security guard at harvey nichols just shortly before claire joined the team they only dated out a very short amount of time of three weeks i know that my cousin did not love him so no it was not serious claire and pesh are only at the very start of their relationship but pesh is head over heels with her claire's cousin kristen quite quickly has her doubts about pesh i realized that this was a very different person to what she'd usually attract he was quite a bit older than her i can't remember how old but there was a fair bit of age difference i believe clara told me that he had been married before she told me a little bit more about him and you know he was much older than claire he was going through a divorce and it wasn't an ideal situation that any mum would want for for their young daughter now during the time they dated i never got a sense that she'd fallen in love with michael she was very flattered by his attention any feelings claire has towards pesh don't last [Music] soon after their first date he becomes possessive and controlling claire phoned me up and said mum i feel really uncomfortable he just wants to be with me the whole time he doesn't want me to to see my friends he doesn't like me going home i'm feeling suffocated it's all happening much too quickly [Music] michael pesch is a former soldier in the slovakian army and has previously worked as a security guard at the american embassy claire finds his attention overbearing after just three weeks she's had enough but she's worried about breaking it off alarm bells started to go off for me when he told her that he loved her after a very short amount of time i believe it was probably no more than three dates that they had been on the red flag just started waving beauty consultant claire bernal is living in london she's been dating michael pesch a security guard at the famous department store harvey nichols where she's working [Music] perch is on his way back to england from slovakia where he's been visiting family he calls claire and demands she meets him at the airport on his return he'd insisted that claire met him from the airport and which claire was not greatly happy about it was help us five in the morning so but she did because that's the way claire was she she liked to please people he had a large case and said he couldn't fudge it across london and he would take it the following day claire's reluctant to let him stay over at her flat she's only been seeing pesh a few weeks but he insists he has to stay over [Music] the next morning pesh won't leave she was upset she said that he had refused to go she'd walked him to the station a train had come in and he refused to catch it and in the end claire said you do what you like i'm going home claire's had enough and tells pesh it's over he calls claire over 20 times she doesn't answer he just sat outside for two hours claire told him to go the two flatmates also in no uncertain terms told him to go and eventually he left now that's when the stalking actually began and it was tireless having dumped pesh claire feels she can't get away from him at work she can feel him watching her using mirrors to observe her secretly he follows her around the store being a security guard he would watch claire on the moment she arrived at work until the moment she left pesh approaches her counter he insists she takes him back claire tries to ignore him but he won't leave her alone he would involve other people he pleaded with them to speak to claire there were colleagues that thought all you need to do claire is just talk to him he only wants to be your friend and she did at one point said look michael to stop this but of course it just made things 10 times worse [Music] it's evening at harvey nichols claire has finished her shift and is collecting her belongings to go home she leaves the store but pesh follows her outside he creeps up behind her and grabs her shoulder he tells her he loves her and that he knows she loves him too claire tells him that she doesn't and he says yes you do you stupid little girl claire is scared and confused but doesn't think she can report him she was embarrassed she was embarrassed about the attention she was getting in the store she felt by reporting it because he hadn't physically harmed her that um she'd be wasting police's time claire is trapped she feels she can't tell anyone other than her mom and cousin about peschi's increasingly disturbing behavior i think claire didn't tell me about pesh because she felt embarrassed that she dated this guy for three weeks that she'd let him into her life i think we all like to think we're a good judge of character [Music] claire's world is closing in she's distracted at work and she feels she's constantly being watched by pesh she's terrified she's on her doorstep always scared he's waiting outside for her [Music] her health was affected she wasn't sleeping at night she was getting eye infections she was getting into trouble with work because she was late or she she wasn't concentrating and her her world was shrinking pesh follows claire everywhere she goes to work on the train at home she can't relax he would follow her to her place after she had finished work which would mean that he would catch a train with her and then when he got to her place he would sit outside her place and be pissing her and her roommates off he was following her home on the underground he was following her on the train back to dullage he was hovering outside her house wherever claire was he was then pesh bombards her phone with calls and texts professing his love for her [Music] [Music] the texts were constant you know up to 50 times a day his behavior becomes more and more sinister his messages read as if they're still together claire was really good at down playing things but i could tell that she was really skeptical and found it really weird like really weird [Music] claire and pash had only been on three dates but he's fixated with her he starts making regular threats [Music] he was saying things like i will kill myself if we are not together if i can't have you no one will [Music] for claire it's the end of another long day at work she leaves harvey nichols and heads to the tube [Music] claire was walking down the platform and she caught sight of pesh there again to claire's horror pesh is following her once more she ran down the platform he ran after her he jumped on the train after her he sit outside opposite her claire tells him to leave her alone that she wants nothing more to do with him she tries to run away again but pesh chases her and then he pushed her that's when clark went around to him and said if you don't leave me alone i'm going to have to report you you went very close to her face and said if you report me i will kill you claire phoned me up crying i was fighting she was frightened but never once did we think that he could possibly carry out his threat things like that don't happen she told me what had happened at the tube station and my heart just sank because i knew that okay this is really serious now claire and her mom trisha are terrified they can't decide if they should report him to the police we did think he could get more angry we did think that by reporting potentially it could exacerbate the situation [Music] they don't know where to turn and claire felt ashamed of what was happening to her claire felt stupid because she dated somebody that was so you know strange that would do something like this she was embarrassed in fact even her closest friends her school friends that she saw on her days off and things like that many of them didn't even know about pesh i knew absolutely nothing about her relationship with pesh because we could go three four weeks two months without you know catching up so her three-week relationship with pesh it's very easily that we weren't in touch with each other claire couldn't hide the situation from her flatmates and her friends have had enough of pesh's threatening behaviour they report him to their bosses at harvey nichols pesh was moved by their boss to a different department so he was still working at harvey nichols but just on a different schedule different floor that unfortunately didn't make any difference to his behavior he still continued stalking her [Music] the head of security was told he took it very very seriously he was an ex-police officer he put cameras on claire and on michael pesch and very quickly saw that yes he was harassing claire and stalking claire he sent michael up to another floor he kept coming down to claire and the reality was that unless claire reported him to the police the only thing that harvey nichols could do was suspend him with which they did pesh casually asks a member of staff what the sentence for murder is in britain harvey nichols head of security finds out he convinces claire she has to go to the police on the surface the police took it really seriously they interviewed claire took statements from her she tells them everything pesh has put her through that she's had to change her number due to his constant texts and calls that pesh has threatened to kill her [Music] pesh is called into work he's sacked and the police are there to arrest him he was escorted out by two police officers in fact in front of claire and claire phoning me and said mummy looked so angry even then she felt responsible in some way to for his arrest after enduring weeks of precious constant harassment and stalking claire is still wondering whether she was right to report him to police claire was just ground down by it i mean she felt partly responsible she said oh maybe i led him to think that i cared more for him than i do she didn't want to get him into trouble she just wanted it to stop pesch's relentless abuse of claire is becoming increasingly clear to her whole family if you're the person involved and you never know what is going to happen day from day night from night you see the same person you know it's not there by accident he's there with an evil intent and it is terrifying it is terrifying police take pesh to the station and he's charged they give him a non-molestation order he was then given a bail condition to not go anywhere near her absolutely no contact pesch is released back out onto the streets [Music] claire and her housemates still don't feel safe they're moving to a new flat in an effort to keep out of pesch's reach [Music] they were in the process of moving to it was one of the girls and herself were moving to another part of dullage village as claire prepares to move she's alarmed as she sees pesh on her doorstep once again [Music] he was smiling up at claire as she was packing the police were called he was nowhere to be seen and nothing was done at that point just four days after he's been arrested and ordered to stay away from claire she's in her new flat in dullich and pesh is lurking outside he's managed to track her down already claire calls the police at first they can't locate him so claire gets in the police car with them and they drive around the area claire pointed him out he was in the doorway they arrested pesh in front of claire he smiles at claire as police handcuff him he's in custody once again it just hit me and it hit claire that potentially he could carry out his threat because he was beyond the law he didn't he didn't care about the consequences he is batshit crazy and he is dangerous and he is unstable and he's obsessed pesh is charged with threatening to kill claire he's released on bail once again to await trial he apparently disappears after weeks of torment claire finally relaxes we didn't want to know what had happened to him life got back to normal for claire [Music] it was claire's birthday i said how about you and i going away to italy [Music] just you know mom and daughter as a special treat we had five magical days in florence [Music] we laughed we went along to this music festival and there's all this cheesy music and we're dancing and giggling together and it was just that time is pure gold and and she was at her most beautiful i just looked at her and i thought well claire you're not only my daughter but you you're my best friends you know and i i just i i don't know she just grown up so much over those last few months [Music] [Applause] [Music] whilst claire and trisha are on holiday together pesh is back in slovakia [Music] at a firing range the former soldier takes weapons training he obtains a firearms license he registers a handgun with the slovakian authorities clare's family and friends and claire herself they didn't know that pesch had returned to his home country and it was there that he was taking firearm training my personal view is that when he was let out of prison the ease of which you can buy a gun that was never ever taken seriously the fact he'd made a threat to kill and he he was a military man michael pesch is traveling back to london on board a coach in his luggage lies a luger handgun he's bought in slovakia i can never get over the fad he was released on bail he managed to get through the border controls who should have picked up this man from his record i mean it's mild boggling that there was no control on that pesh is facing a day in court to stand trial for harassing claire there was one black cloud that claire was dreading that the case was due to be heard at the end of august and there's a chance that she would still have to see pesh claire was actually encouraged to drop the charges of kill threats because it would be hard to prove that he was threatening to kill her and so she was asked to drop those threats at the last moment he changes his plea to guilty there will be no trial claire won't have to face him in court and it's a massive relief i got a call to say mum i can finally put this awful episode to bed he will get a minimal final community service there's no reason for people to be angry with me and finally now i will be believed claire emails her cousin kristen [Music] pesch has pleaded guilty but pending sentence is allowed to walk free claire is on the beauty counter at harvey nichols her day started off as a very normal work day she went to work i think it was a tuesday just before 8 pm and claire's shift is almost over a few customers milling around everybody is sort of lulled into that quiet time going home time claire and her colleague in the beauty department are looking forward to leaving work she put her hand up to claire and looked at her watch as if to say 10 minutes to go and she said claire gave her this beautiful smile security staff have been told to keep watch for pesh but he makes his way into the store through a side entrance on the shop floor claire's colleague notices him it was at that moment she saw a shadow appear behind claire and she thought it might have been a boyfriend meeting claire after work it was pesh he was high on cocaine he raised a gun and he shot her at the back of the head she fell and he shot her three times in the face pesh fires another shot into the ceiling before turning the gun on himself [Music] claire bernard died at the scene she was 22. it was so surreal it was so surreal everybody was in shock and just felt like it was happening to someone else i know that when he shot her that that she she would have been gone before she even hit the floor and i hope that she had no idea what was what was going on um you know i pray that she she didn't feel any pain you could never write a a loved one out of you i don't do that it'll always be there i'm so very very when it happened to claire i was out with friends celebrating the birthday came back quite late about midnight i heard a loud bang on the door i went downstairs and um they they were two police officers and one of them said it's claire and i knew by their face that she'd gone and then he said the family liaison officer said um she's been shot and i said it was pesh wasn't it and he just nodded in her grief trisha began to look at other cases [Music] she realized she was not alone i started campaigning with two other mothers we realized very swiftly the power of families who've lost a loved one working together with professionals to improve the system nobody can dismiss a mother who's lost her daughter and we could shout from the rooftop so nobody could stop us as a way of coping tricia and others set up the charity protection against stalking it's our mission to raise awareness of the dangerous stalking to be involved in training speaking about our daughters and demonstrating the danger that they win the dangerous signs during her search for answers trisha met laura richards and they began to work together i have to say that trisha just showed such humility and just she really just wanted answers to ensure that it didn't happen to anyone else's daughter or loved one and she moved me that could have been my mother stood there that could have been any one of my friends families asking questions they should have a right to ask those questions when their loved ones been brutally murdered laura and trisha lobbied the prime minister of the time for the law to be changed [Music] and i think there is a very clear difference between harassment and stalking this pressure paid off stalking would become a criminal offence for the first time the existing law isn't good enough or strong enough i don't think we've done enough in the past and i want us to do better these are cases that i call murders in slow motion trisha's view was always that she just didn't want this to happen to somebody else and that claire would never come back but she wanted to ensure that the lessons were learned good afternoon national stocking helpline when you say he was kind of all right at first what sort of things did he start off doing the helpline offers victims advice from staff specifically trained to deal with stalking cases [Music] if you were in the unfortunate position of being stalked my cousin would want you to know reach out for help you've got nothing to be ashamed of i know that there were times when my cousin would feel embarrassed about it if you are being made to feel uncomfortable or even harmed you have every single right to reach out and speak out and get the help that you deserve the strongest message i can give any victim is go to the police make sure they take it seriously if they don't take it seriously call the helpline nobody has a right to control anybody's life i'm very proud of it sister it's very easy to collapse under the pressure you can fight it or you can just go under and now she's done what i think is right she has fought she's achieved amazing things i will continue to do this work as long as it takes because it's still happening and that's why myself and other families do what we do because we really do think it makes a difference you

Channel: True Crime Central

Views: 1,858,955

Keywords: Full, Season, UK, Women, documentaries, True Crime Central, true crime, Killed By My Stalker, stalk, stalker, stalker ex, best true crime documentaries, crime stories, true crime stories, real crime, serial killer, beyond crime, stalker exes, stalking stories, crime documentaries, crime, killed by stalker, true crime documentary, stalker true crime, stalked true crime, story time, stalker caught on camera, murdered by stalker, clare bernal, killed by my stalker, i dated a psycho

Id: xLTrOZLs9gI

Length: 44min 19sec (2659 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 13 2022