Emily Maitlis: Stalking is not all about ‘dark streets and high heels’
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Stalking needs to be renamed because people think it’s all “dark streets and high heels”, Emily Maitlis has claimed.
The broadcaster, who was stalked for decades, said society should re-frame how such criminal behaviour is considered and instead see it as an “obsessional illness”.
Maitlis was targeted by a stalker who harboured a three-decade fixation with her after the pair studied at Cambridge University at the same time.
Edward Vines was jailed for eight years in 2022 after attempting to breach a restraining order for the 20th time by bombarding Maitlis with letters. He was first convicted of harassing her in 2002.
Speaking on the Desperately Seeking Wisdom podcast, the 53-year-old former BBC Newsnight host said: “I think the trouble with stalking is that in our heads it sounds sort of celebrity-related or glamorous – sort of dark streets and high heels – and most stalking has nothing to do with that.
“It’s just to do with an obsessional illness in the head of the person and actually we’re getting much better at recognising mental health and all its myriad forms now.”
The News Agents presenter told the podcast that she is “empathetic” towards Vines, saying: “Look, I think of [Edward Vines] as having kind of lost his whole life over this, quite frankly. Of course I feel empathetic to that.”
‘Breath-taking persistence’
When he was sentenced in 2022, Judge Mark Watson told Vines: “In my judgment, you have shown breath-taking persistence and a complete disregard for the order and the proceedings you were awaiting.
“This is just the latest chapter in a much longer history.
“It seems that having left university and gone your separate ways, you then ruminated over what could have been.
“The existence of the order is meaningless to you.
“The only thing stopping you from contacting her is your continued imprisonment.
“It is an obsession from which you have been unable to escape.”
Maitlis also explained that she doesn’t like the use of the word stalking in general, and said it was time to consider a different term that focuses on it being a medical illness.
She said: “I think we’ve got to find a different word for stalking, which is much more to do with his brain [not] working properly.
“I know that you don’t just need a prison system. You need a psychiatric system.
“And at the moment, we’re really, really hard pushed to find enough mental health [resources] not least [for] all the many, many thousands of kids in this country now who are suffering and having a really hard time with their own mental health.”
Other celebrities who have been targeted by stalkers in recent years include actress Claire Foy and radio and TV presenter Jeremy Vine.
