Stalked by Domestic violence detective … story in the DAILY MAIL
Michael and Sarah came to Featureworld to tell their terrifying story about how they were stalked by a police woman. I placed their story in the Daily Mail and their story is now also set to be told in a women’s magazine.
The couple say they are still feel terrified every time they go out after Michael received anonymous emails telling him ‘life will be hell’ and ‘U will live a nightmare.’
Unbeknown to Michael at the time, the emails were from DC Kirsty Anderson, whom he had dated for eight weeks before finishing their relationship. And it was when he met Sarah that jealous Anderson, who worked in a domestic violence unit, began her campaign of terror.
Anderson told Michael to watch his two sons who ‘could disappear.’
She also threatened to petrol bomb Mr Hall’s new girlfriend Sarah Stroud’s home while her daughter, aged five, slept. Chillingly she added, ‘I’m watching.’
The West Yorkshire police officer is now facing jail over a six-month campaign when she bombarded Mr Hall with dozens of emails begging him to come back and sent three others under a fake address containing the threats.
Anderson, who described herself online as ‘a dedicated and hardworking Police officer’ with over 13 years’ experience, resigned just 24 hours before pleading guilty at Bradford Crown Court to harassing Mr Hall leaving him in fear of violence. She also admitted using police computers to access data which she was not authorised to view from August 2016 to February 2017.
Speaking for the first time since the court case Miss Stroud, a shop assistant from Leeds, said: ‘I still feel petrified every time I step out of the house that this woman is watching.
‘In one of the emails from a fake address, she said she would when she said she would petrol bomb my home and burn it down while my five-year old daughter slept. Chillingly she described my daughter’s hair colour.
‘Knowing someone could be watching you and your children is terrible. I’ve suffered terrible panic attacks, hardly slept and had my hair fall out through stress. And what’s made the whole ordeal worse was finding out this was a supposedly trustworthy police officer.’
Mr Hall, a separated father of two sons aged five and 15 first met the detective in March 2016 on the dating app Tinder.
He said: ‘Kirsty seemed bubbly and chatty and at first we hit it off. But alarm bells rang when just a week after we met she said she’d booked a romantic weekend away in the Lake District for us. From then on she became very intense.
‘She quickly grew possessive. She didn’t want me to see my friends and family, wanting to be together all the time.’
After eight weeks the painter and decorator finished their relationship, ‘But although I kept on telling her we were over, she bombarded me with long emails. Some begged me to come back while others said she understood why I’d left her.’
However, in Nov 2016 Mr Hall began dating his new partner, an old school friend, Miss Stroud, who is also separated with two children aged five and 18.
She says: ‘I hadn’t seen Michael for years when I met him while shopping. After catching up with one another, he texted to ask if I fancied a drink. Since then we’ve been inseparable.’
Three weeks after meeting, the couple announced their relationship on Facebook – and shortly after in February 2017 Mr Hall received the first of three shocking emails, which as well as threats of violence were full of swear words.
He said: ‘When I opened the first email and read how my sons ‘could disappear’ and threatening to burn Sarah’s house down, I was horrified.
‘Neither Sarah nor myself could think of anyone who would send such a terrible emails. However, a few months earlier Sarah had been to the police herself after some tyres were slashed outside her house. At the time she mentioned to the police who she thought it was – and the emails were sent in the same christian name.’
The couple reported the emails to the Police who began investigating – and they were to uncover a shocking web of lies.
Adds Mr Hall, ‘Bizarrely, in one email the writer – who we now know was Kirsty herself – had written, “Kirsty is next knife to her throat.”
‘Naturally her police colleagues wanted to know why Kirsty was mentioned in the email.
It was then Kirsty admitted she’d actually sent the emails herself. It transpired she’d used the police computer to find details to find Sarah’s address. And she’d sent them in the name of the person Sarah had reported might be responsible for slashing tyres.
‘Maybe in her twisted mind she thought mentioning herself in the emails would make me worry she too could be a victim. But Sarah and I were shocked that not only was Kirsty responsible for these threatening emails she used a compliant Sarah made to the police previously to pin the blame on another person.’
Anderson, who boasts on online profile Linkedin she is a ‘successful investigator in serious complex crime’ is due to be sentenced on 26th January 2018. Her barrister Mike Rawlinson told Bradford Crown Court she had a ‘raft of mental health problems’ and psychiatric reports are due to be presented.
Granting bail on condition she does not contact Mr Hall or Miss Stroud, Judge Abdul Iqbal told Anderson she could be jailed.
Miss Stroud said: ‘Michael and I feel angry she was allowed to resign without any disciplinary action from the police.
‘This police officer put both of us through a terrible experience. I have CCTV cameras on my house but even now I don’t feel safe. I used to be a happy go lucky person. Now there are days I have to force myself to go out of the house – and when I go out I am terrified I am still being stalked.
‘We hope justice is done and she goes to prison. No police officer should be allowed to use their position to stalk someone and no one should be allowed to put anyone though such a frightening ordeal.’
Read the full story in the Daily Mail
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