Stalkers in the UK

I recently left a flat where I had brought furniture, carpeted and intended to stay.  The reason was that a man who lived in the same complex had tried to make a pass at me and when I responded negatively he put mud all over my blanket.  It didn't stop there, however and I soon found that my flat was intruded upon when I was out on a regular basis leaving marks on the wall, my personal items and dirt on the bathroom floor.  After the windows in my bedroom were all unlocked I called the police only to be asked to hand in my window key and get a psychiatric evaluation!!!  It's true!  Since I have found this is the police usual MO for dealing with women who are stalked.  It's easy to label and ignore pleas for protection.  I have a hunch that the crime stats are down in the UK because they don't do interventions like I would have expected but wait until a crime is committed such as rape or murder in stalking incidents which count for at least 12 murders a year. Then they already have collected names and evidence and can grab the criminal and mark as one more notch for policing!  Got my drift?  

Be very careful when you visit the UK.  120,000 mostly women are stalked each year in the UK and 64% report that the police refused to help them.  Sounds familiar territory to me!  You can buy pepper spray to protect yourself and that's about it because I kept a knife between my mattress and box springs which gave the policeman a mind set of lecturing me about what I cannot do to protect myself in the UK knowing that I had recently lived in the US where the laws are different.  Well how about that!  But he couldn't tell me what law prohibited me from sleeping with a knife by my bed.

www.nss.org.uk provides useful information should you find a stalker on your back when visiting the UK.  The Freedom from Harassment Act (1997) was ignored by the policeman who spoke with me and from what I understand it is used for civil litigation purposes which enables you to hire a solicitor and get a court injunction against the stalker.

Use your intuition and pay attention to your surroundings and keep safe no matter what the police think you are i.e. "mental health problem," as they use for a cop out (excuse the pun) instead of helping women who are stalked like myself.