Surviving Harassment – A Guest Blog

We continue to welcome guest submissions for our blog from solicitors, clients, HR specialists, professionals within the insurance industry and the like. If you or someone you know would like to submit an entry – or if you have an idea for a guest blog subject that is amenable to the type of work we do at Surmount – please drop us a line at enquiries@surmount-investigations.com

With the permission of our ex-client / the original author who we helped on a difficult Harassment case in Newcastle Upon Tyne, we’re reposting her blog which received a large amount of attention when first published and which she uses as a platform to a) talk through her experience of working with us to bring her distress to an end and b) hopefully help other people out there who might be in a similar position.

[To protect her identity, and at her own request, all names have been changed].

“… Against my better judgement and after much pressure from my friends I joined Tinder towards the end of the summer 2017. I had been in a five year relationship and had been single for around a year. I went on a couple of dates through Tinder but they went nowhere and then I met ‘Mike’ through the app.

We went for a few drinks and a meal in town and hit it off. I agreed to see him again and we agreed to go to the cinema and for a meal the following week. The second date did not go well at all and I felt he was pressurising me quite a bit for the date to conclude with sex which made me uncomfortable. I got home that night and texted him to say that I thought he was a nice guy but that I didn’t think we were a good fit and I did not want to see him again.

The next morning I woke to see I had 11 texts and 2 missed calls from ‘Mike’. They were a mixture of apologetic, asking me to reconsider, getting annoyed with me and him playing the victim. I ignored them all. That afternoon he dropped flowers off at my house whilst I was at work and this really freaked me out because I had never told him my address, only where I worked.

I messaged him and said that the flowers thing had made me feel uncomfortable as I had not given him my address and I asked him how he found it out. He wouldn’t tell me. And over the course of the next week, I got a text from him every morning and every night wishing me a good morning and a good night. I didn’t reply to any of them. But he kept sending them anyway.

The final straw was when he turned up at my work. I work in a busy [Business Deleted] on the high street and I was sat with a customer when ‘Mike’ came in with flowers and started to engage me in conversation. I repeatedly said I would speak to him after I had finished with my customer and drew that out long enough hoping he would give up and leave but he didn’t. To get him to go away I agreed to meet him after work in a pub up the road in Gosforth so we could talk. I did not go. Instead I arranged with my housemate to go the police.

I went to Northumbria Police and showed them the texts and explained that I had been ignoring him but it was not working and now he had my home address and everything. They said that they would ring him and have a chat with him on the number I gave them but that because they could see no record of me telling him to stop contacting me then they could not consider it “harassment”.

That same night ‘Mike’ turned up at my house with a bottle of wine and banged on the door repeatedly, telling me we needed to sort it out ourselves and not be involving the police. I called Northumbria Police and told them he was at my address, that I was scared and I thought he was going to get in and hurt me. They took a report over the phone but no officers came out. It was my housemate’s boyfriend who turned up and threatened him that made ‘Mike’ go away in the end that night.

I told my boss about it and how Northumbria Police were no use and I asked if I could have someone walk me to my car every night when I finish which she agreed to. Later that day she said she’d been Googling and had come across Surmount Investigations and their Harassment Support stuff. I took their details and give them a call and met with [Name Omitted] from Surmount the next day in my lunch hour.

We drew up a plan together and agreed a budget for them to work to and the aim they put in place was to gather enough evidence to take back to the police and try to force them to do something this time. [Name Omitted] sent me a text template that night for me to send to ‘Mike’ making it clear that I did not want to hear from him again and that he was making me uncomfortable. I got abusive messages back and I screenshotted all of it and saved them.

That weekend I tagged myself on social media as going out to a club in town with my friends and I went out knowing that [Name Omitted] from Surmount was watching me and was going to follow me home and watch my house overnight too. Within an hour of being in town ‘Mike’ showed up with one of his friends and started trying to talk to me. He threw a drink over one of my friends and left. [Name Omitted] recorded it all happening. When I got home that night ‘Mike’ showed up drunk and kept banging on the door and then sitting texting me for hours while sat on my doorstep. [Name Omitted] from Surmount was in a car across the road photographing all of this.

I went over the footage and photos with [Name Omitted] the next day and I agreed to him putting a report together and us going to the police again. Within 24 hours I had the report and photos and [Name Omitted] met me at the police station nearest to me where we talked with an Inspector. [Name Omitted] showed them the photos, the video clips and gave them a copy of his report and a statement he had written and asked them to reconsider their original stance.

The Inspector originally said they were going to give ‘Mike’ a PIN which is like a formal record of being warned based on the information Surmount presented. But they actually arrested and charged him. He was given a caution and told that he had to stay away from me. I was very lucky that I did not hear from him again after that and the harassment stopped. This would never ever have been the case if I’d not paid Surmount Investigations to get involved and to take seriously what was happening to me because it was starting to make me ill. I cannot thank [Name Omitted] from Surmount enough.”

Are you or someone you know and care about getting harassed and feel as if the local police or other supporting agencies are not taking you seriously? Get in touch with us today and book a FREE consultation to see how we can help you.

Call 07711 863 944 or email enquiries@surmount-investigations.com to arrange an appointment.