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Stalkers are using GPS tracking technology to pursue victims via their mobile phones in a disturbing "American style" trend, prosecutors revealed today.
The tactic involves the use of websites and apps that can pinpoint the location of a mobile throughout the day once the number and personal details of its user have been logged.
The Crown Prosecution Service said today that cases had already occurred in London and elsewhere in the South-East and warned that they formed part of the growing volume of "cyber stalking" that was overtaking more traditional means of hounding victims.
The trend emerged as Home Secretary Theresa May also spoke of the menace posed by stalking.
In a speech in London, Mrs May said that ministers would work with business to counter cyber stalking and would support the specialist police officers responsible for tackling the problem.
The most eye-catching revelation, however, was the news that GPS stalking is becoming an increasing problem in Britain. Nazir Afzal, the Crown Prosecution Service director responsible for stalking and harassment cases, said the practice was already common in the US and was starting to affect British victims.
“Stalking via GPS is one of the areas that we are getting a substantial amounts of intelligence about,” he said. “We are finding cases in London and the South-East where people have had access to a person's mobile phone and are using apps to identify where their victim is so that they can track them and be there at the same time.”
Mr Afzal said that as well as GPS tracking, other cyber-stalking methods, such as the use of Facebook and other networking sites to find details about a victim's movements and life, were increasing.
He added: “What we are coming to appreciate is how the cyber element has increased so substantially. Cyber-stalking is now exceeding stalking in the traditional ways. It is inflicting misery and we are determined not to stand by and let it happen.”
A crackdown on stalking was announced this year in which prosecutors can apply for court orders banning perpetrators from stalking victims via their phones or the internet.
Reader views (2)
So the man whos tracking you might not be U.N.C.L.E
- SCONY, MIDDLESBROUGH, 10/12/2010 08:51
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Wow, American style trend eh!
You mean like extraordinary rendition!or maybe you mean locking people up on a island with out charge or trial!
or maybe you mean invading a sovereign state on the pretext that they had weapons of mass destruction,like them selves.
- Arthur toecrat, London-UK, 09/12/2010 13:19
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