Stalker wanted to stab Lily Allen through the face
Lily Allen says she was made to feel like a ânuisance rather than a victimâ by UK police investigating a stalker, as she revealed horrifying details of the seven-year ordeal.
The British singer was pursued by a man who barged into her bedroom as she and her children slept.
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She said he wished to stab her through the face and spent nights lurking in her garden.Â
However, Allen said she was denied the support she expected when she raised her concerns with police.
Investigators destroyed evidence that supported her case, gave her a panic alarm for a matter of months and even refused to allow her to see and then keep a photo of her stalker, she told The Observer newspaper.
The long campaign of harassment has left her âa changed personâ, Allen said after she finally saw the man convicted.
âIt was not special attention I looked for. It was reassurance and validation. The police made me feel like a nuisance, rather than a victim,â she said.
The nightmare began in 2009 when a Twitter follower using the handle @lilyallenRIP appeared, claiming to have penned one of her hits.
Behind the tweet was Alex Gray, a man in his early 20s from Scotland, who then sent abusive rants, accusations and suicide threats in letters to her flat, her sisterâs home, her record company, and her management, that were in turn handed to police.
Then, when someone in the crowd at a gig held up a banner that read âI wrote The Fearâ, she called officers in again. After lending her a panic alarm for a few months they reportedly took it back.
According to Allen she was then denied the chance to see a picture of Gray. When officers eventually did let her see it, they would not let her keep it.
The stalker progressed to banging on her door and spending nights in her back garden, before a terrifying incident on October 13 last year when she awoke in the early hours to find someone wrenching at her bedroom door.
âThis guy came steaming in and I didnât know who he was. I recoiled and he ripped the duvet off, calling me a âf****** b****â and yelling about where his dad is.â
Gray was forced from the property by a friend and disappeared. The police were called and Allen later found her handbag was stolen, although investigators were âuncomfortableâ with her suggestion it was her stalker, she told the newspaper.
Then, when she found the handbag burned on the bonnet of her car, Gray was eventually caught and charged with burglary.
Gray, now 30, was eventually charged with burglary and harassment, although the stalking count reportedly did not cover anything before 2015. He was convicted at Harrow Crown Court this month and will be sentenced in May.
Allen said she wanted answers from the police: âIâm not angry at Alex Gray. He has a mental illness. The system has failed him. But until he gets the right treatment and the right help he needs, then Iâm not safe.
âYou can throw the book at him, put him in jail, but heâll still be coming out. And the victim is never safe.â
A Metropolitan Police spokesman would not comment on Allenâs case but said they take stalking and harassment âextremely seriouslyâ.
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