Linda’s Story

Linda, 35, has been stalked by her ex-boyfriend for three and a half years. Linda can’t imagine how it will ever end. She and her ex had been together for eight years and have two children together. Whilst the relationship was intact, he was very controlling and would not let Linda see her friends or family. She was not allowed to work or leave the house without his permission. He controlled what she wore and what she ate (to the extent that he put padlocks on the food cupboards and the fridge and kept the keys on his person at all times). He was never physically violent. He made Linda believe she ugly and worthless and isolated her so that she had no relationships to compare her own with and no one to turn to.

Linda says: “Sometimes I wish I had never developed the courage to leave him. I had to I know because of the children but it’s so difficult to carry on. I am as abused and unsafe as I was when we lived together. It just goes on and on and on and on. It will never end and I will never find anyone else. I know I won’t. He won’t ever let me. He broke into my home and set fire to it and then took me to court to gain custody of the children. I have almost nothing left to fight him with and next time he could win. I know that if he did get the children he would give them up. Him trying to get the children and trying to get contact with them is his way of keeping me where he can reach me. He’s not bothered about them. It’s his way of stopping me from hiding.”