Stalking is when someone shows persistent and unwanted attention towards you or makes contact with you in ways that make you feel distressed or restricts your freedom. When individual incidents are put together they can reveal a pattern of obsessive behaviour.
The incidents can cause a lot of distress, often because they are carried out by someone who knows about your movements, habits, likes and dislikes and your friends and family.
Stalking behaviour might appear innocent at first, but if it keeps happening, it could mean something more sinister.
Unwanted contact can include phone calls, letters, emails, text messages, and messages on social networking sites, graffiti or sending or leaving gifts.
Some examples of stalking:
- Waiting for you
- Spying on you
- Approaching you
- Going to your home.
A stalker may also order or cancel your goods or services, make complaints to organisations about you, damage your property or try to talk to you online (cyber stalking).
Stalking is contrary to the University’s Harassment and Bullying Procedure.
Find out more
Paladin: supports high-risk victims of stalking with their specialist independent stalking advocacy caseworkers and makes sure local protection is available for victims.