Backed by Allen, they are campaigning for a register of stalkers to be kept, in the same way as with sex offenders, allowing police to keep track of people who are often repeat offenders. She sees Allen’s case as an example of how anti-stalking measures are not working. Stalking was not unique to celebrities, said Sophie Walker, leader of the Women’s Equality party and their candidate in London’s mayoral race. Like the vast majority of the 700,000 victims of stalking in England and Wales every year, Allen had no idea that this was a crime that more often than not followed a pattern. Who can you trust if you cannot trust institutions like the police?” I have some trust issues now, not least with the police. At first she was refused, then finally officers came and showed her a photo, which they took away afterwards. I didn’t even know what he looked like.”Īllen again approached police, begging to see a picture of Gray. I did all my own digging, got my own lawyer, put measures in place to protect my family. “They just said, ‘Alex Gray is active again.’ I had no idea what that meant. Things went quiet for a while, and then she had a call from the police. They lent her a panic alarm for a few months before asking for it back. Then I was on stage and someone holds up a banner saying, ‘I wrote The Fear’.” Allen finished her song, then called police. “They just said, ‘He looks like Phil Mitchell ,’ so I’d be looking at scruffy blokes on every street corner. The man approached Allen’s assistant and other colleagues, who described him as “frightening”. But I felt comforted by the fact that I was telling the police, I was keeping a record,” she said. “It was freaking me out a bit and I’m not easily scared, so the fact I went to the police with the letters shows how serious I felt it was. “He would drop off these letters at my record company, my management offices, my sister’s shop, my flat,” she said. Gray steadily undermined her confidence and security after popping up on a social media account in 2009, claiming to having written her hit song, The Fear, and using the handle came letters, abusive rants, accusations and suicide threats. In an exclusive interview with the Observer, Allen says she remains in limbo awaiting the sentencing of Alex Gray, the stranger who threatened her life.
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