Victoria Police begin to profile psyche of stalkers as case numbers surge

As stalking cases surge in Victoria, police have begun to profile offenders in a bid to identify the most dangerous and intervene before it’s too late.

Victoria Police has begun profiling stalkers in an Australian-first trial aimed at preventing serious violence and homicides.

The force has launched its new tool called Screening Assessment for Stalking and Harassment, which enables police to identify the state’s most dangerous stalkers and intervene before it’s too late.

The pilot trial, under way in Prahran and Morwell, follows a surge in stalking cases ­including by obsessed neighbours, colleagues and strangers, and addresses the sort of critical gaps that preceded the 2020 murder of Celeste Manno, allegedly by a deluded former colleague, Luay Sako.

The tool enables frontline and specialist police to dig deep into the behaviours and psyches of stalkers to predict the likelihood of them escalating to violence.

It asks victims 16 questions such as whether a stalker has said things such as “If I can’t have you, no one else can” or tried to get physically close.

The information is analysed by police trained by a stalking expert to establish an offending pattern rather than looking only at individual incidents, which often fail to show the level of harm of which a stalker is capable.

Stalkers who are categorised as high risk will be put under close investigation by local detectives, who will also visit stalkers at home and urge them to stop.

Low and moderate-risk stalkers will be managed by frontline police, with oversight of moderate-risk stalkers by local detectives.

Assistant Commissioner Lauren Callaway and stalking expert Cleo Brandt are involved in the rollout of a new high-risk stalker intervention trial. Picture: Nicki Connolly

The tool has been used with great success in Britain, the Netherlands and Scotland, and comes amid a concerning rise in stalking reports here.

Crime Statistics Agency figures show more than 1100 non-family violence stalking offences recorded statewide in the past year, up 12 per cent on the previous year.

Assistant Commissioner Lauren Callaway said the pilot would be used on non-family violence stalkers, such as “unsuccessful suitors” who fleetingly met their victims and through delusion dreamt up relationships that were not real or wanted.

And for the first time, all ­reports of stalking, including low-level incidents, will be ­entered into an intelligence database to form a complex risk profile of each offender.

Ms Callaway said: “Stalking and any behaviour that creates fear and control over someone is not OK. This trial is so important because it will help police better recognise and understand stalking ­behaviours to improve safety for victims”.

Stalking expert Cleo Brandt, who is leading the police training, said the pilot helped police better identify the “red flags” that indicated a victim was in danger.

“Before now there hasn’t been that much training or awareness. Victims often report the most frightening thing that happens to them and police end up charging the stalker with one offence not realising it is part of a broader pattern,” she said.

More than 100 frontline and specialist police from Prahran and Morwell have been trained as part of the pilot, which concludes in June.

There has been a concerning rise in reports of stalking in Victoria.

‘I FELT MY BODY WAS GOING TO COLLAPSE’

Tori* never thought a few friendly yet brief conversations with her sister’s housemate would end in the stalking nightmare that changed her life in 2019.

Her stalker latched on to her after being kicked out of her sister’s home for drug abuse.

The 36-year-old did not know him well, only ever exchanging a few words when she visited her sister.

But in the summer of 2019, she found him sitting in a car outside her Torquay home.

Unnerved by the creepy encounter, she stayed at her parents’ home that night only to find him at her gym the next day.

“My heart just dropped because he had never been there before,” she said.

When she returned home she found a handwritten note from her stalker in her letterbox. In it he professed his love, among other disconcerting comments.

Tori went to police to report the incidents and was told her stalker was a high-risk offender with a history of sexual violence.

Police went to his house and told him to stop, and helped Tori safeguard her home, including with CCTV cameras.

But just as she started to feel safe, her stalker re-emerged in the most frightening way.

She was in her garden when her CCTV system alerted her to movement outside her home.

Tori reviewed the footage and saw that her stalker had crept up the side of her home to watch her.

He was wearing sunglasses, a cap and had his collar pulled up – clear signs of attempted disguise.

“I felt my body was going to collapse,” she said.

The man was later charged with stalking and banned from Torquay.

Tori said she feels like one of the lucky ones, given the enormous support of police, family and friends.

But she’s glad police have invested in new ways to understand stalkers. “It’s really positive and good for other victims,” she said.

* Not her real name