- 4 hours ago
Stalked - Season 1 Episode 2
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:17and this person has been stalking you yeah it's terrifying it was like a really fast escalation
00:30he knows where i live and he found it so quickly i was young and a little bit boy crazy
00:38the next thing i know he was holding me down and giving me this horrific hickey you're mine now
00:45i was 16 when i met him and he was 24. i would never have looked at him and thought
00:51that he
00:51was a romantic interest often i'd get a message on valentine's day they were so stupid
01:01my phone led up to a message from greg i thought lola's head was going to be in the letterbox
01:08then he pulled out a knife this is what i can do if you don't conform he had convinced me
01:16to move
01:17in with him and things got significantly worse after that it felt like maybe an hour before
01:22the police got there they said that there's nothing that they can do until he does something
01:26because stalking is not illegal you shouldn't stay in this house
01:39we're in a hotel i have a stalker who has flown here from the netherlands and found our house today
01:49i think as soon as we got into the hotel there was just like
01:53it was just shock what the hell is happening police have come to our house and now we are
02:01staying here so that he doesn't take me
02:08and then peter starts messaging again last night they told me to uh block him i've been so i did
02:15but
02:15he just messaged one of my housemates something that sounds like he is going to or had tried to kill
02:52himself last night
02:57during the first eight years i only ever responded to greg once
03:07and it was when he messaged me when i had moved to melbourne on a gap year in part
03:11to get away from new zealand to escape greg
03:22and i thought about not replying but ultimately i didn't want him
03:27to be hanging out around my mum's house with the hopes of seeing me
03:39so i replied to him i'm not in new zealand
03:47greg's response was a rambling response
03:57and i felt kind of bad for him
04:07and so i responded to him it's okay greg thank you
04:16his response to that was
04:20it's okay that i messaged you everything is still the same you still want me to leave you alone
04:33i think responding to greg made things worse because it gave him a slither of hope i think it gave
04:39him
04:39the idea that actually it might have taken 150 messages but she responded so perhaps i'll keep going
04:50when i came back to wellington
04:54i didn't want to live at my mom's house because i didn't want him to know i was back
05:00i felt very like confident knowing he didn't know i was here and it was kind of this feeling of
05:05like
05:05you know oh he's like looking around a bit but you have this kind of peace and then i remember
05:11he saw
05:11me once and things started up again and he messaged me saying that if you don't respond your mum's gonna
05:16find lola's head in the letterbox
05:22it's kind of like what's the right acronym right now hold on okay there's bl and al which is before
05:29lola
05:29and after lola and my entire world shifted when that message came it went from this ridiculous and
05:39ongoing and weird and invasive harassment
05:47turn to i'm gonna kill your cat
05:52from that night on for the following weeks
05:57greg sent me hundreds and hundreds of messages
06:05that were threatening
06:09that were violent and gruesome and sexual in nature
06:18they came at all hours of the day they didn't stop
06:23they just kept coming and coming and coming and i kept blocking accounts and new ones would be made
06:29blocking accounts new ones would be made
06:38my favorite future would be to meet my soul mate in brackets obviously not you
06:44sorry it's not funny
06:46and fall in love and be happy or just you know the perfect girl for me deal and live happily
06:51ever
06:51after but my second favorite future is a path like ed kemper or jeffrey dharma i want to hurt
06:57torture my enemies slowly i want to ruin their entire lives and have them suffer for the rest of them
07:02i want to kill people i want to have you as my little toy
07:20and have them i want to kill people i want to kill people i want to kill people i want
07:21to kill people
07:21he and i are living together now we've just moved into an apartment building
07:27we had our own lives but very quickly he infiltrated mine
07:34he has isolated me completely from my community
07:40I was also going to a local course.
07:44He would park outside of my course and he would wait for me to finish.
07:49If I was seen to be with a male, he would come and harass the male
07:55or he would pick a fight with me or he would drag me to the car.
08:00If I was talking to anyone inside for too long,
08:03he would stay outside and honk the horn.
08:09There was a lady who was one of our teachers,
08:14and she pulled me aside one day after inviting me to a housewarming she was having.
08:19And I had mentioned in passing,
08:21well, my boyfriend doesn't let me go out.
08:26I'll have to ask him.
08:28And she obviously took that as a really alarming statement
08:31because she pulled me aside and had said,
08:35look, I think that you might be in an abusive relationship.
08:42A light bulb went off in my head and I thought, oh my God, she's right.
08:48This guy is crazy.
08:49He is making me go to the bathroom with the door open.
08:53He is wanting to read my phone. He has to see every message.
08:57He's rifling through my things.
08:59I know that he's driving around watching me through the day.
09:04It's crazy.
09:09I took my sister to this flat and I walked upstairs and said,
09:14I'm going to leave you.
09:16And I thought that that was a good idea.
09:20He grabbed me by the hair.
09:22He threw me into a wall.
09:25My sister, who was barely a teenager, is terrified.
09:30And she runs out of the flat to go and get help.
09:35And he gets a knife out of the drawer.
09:38And he says, you think you're going to fucking leave me?
09:45I managed to slip past him at one point.
09:49And I run out into the main street of South Auckland, Papakura.
09:53And my family are there.
09:55And they put me into the car.
09:57And I'm crying and I'm in shock.
10:00I couldn't believe what had just happened.
10:04But there was this sigh of relief.
10:07I'm never going to have to see this motherfucker again.
10:12And then we turn a corner.
10:14And then, like...
10:17Like a bad disease.
10:20He just runs out of nowhere.
10:23I didn't even get five minutes' peace.
10:25He was just there.
10:29The...
10:30The breath just left me.
10:34I just thought, are you fucking kidding me?
10:38Again?
10:41Babe.
10:42Babe.
10:43I'm sorry.
10:43Babe.
10:44Babe, just talk to me.
10:45Just tell her to look at me.
10:46If she'd just look at me, she would know.
10:49And I did not look at him.
10:51I didn't break eye contact with that road.
11:07God, she's cute, isn't she?
11:10She used to be much cuter when she laid eggs.
11:13And I don't know why she stopped.
11:15But she hasn't laid one for about six months.
11:17You're so mean.
11:19Glinda.
11:23I'm such an animal lover.
11:25I think it's something that feels pretty integral to who I am.
11:28Of course.
11:29For you.
11:29I've been vegetarian for over 20 years and vegan for almost 10.
11:35The reason I went vegetarian when I was four was that I was watching The Simpsons after dinner one day.
11:42And it was that episode where Lisa finds out that a lamb is a lamb.
11:46And I was like, I've been hoodwinked.
11:49Like, what?
11:50I actually got a tattoo of Lisa Simpson cuddling a lamb on my leg.
11:57So nice to be home, Mum.
11:59God, it's lovely having you back.
12:02This is to prove that you're not really a vegetarian because this is with a chicken bone.
12:08I think this is my favourite photo of me ever.
12:11It's so not me that looking at this now feels like, God, how could you do that?
12:17And I'm like nine months old or something.
12:18And yet you look so happy.
12:20No, I know.
12:21You were about one.
12:22I think you had it for your first birthday.
12:24Really?
12:25Where is this?
12:26I think the only thing he knows about me is that I'm vegan.
12:30And so he really hung his hat on that.
12:46Around this time, Greg ordered meat lovers pizzas with extra meat on them to my mum's house to get under
12:54my skin.
12:54And it totally did.
12:56It felt really terrifying.
12:59The stalking kind of moving from online to this more physical action.
13:07It was such a reminder that he did know things about me.
13:25I've always really loved sewing.
13:27My mum taught me as a little girl and it's been a hobby forever.
13:32And I really enjoyed it.
13:36When I was sewing, I was just blasting Taylor Swift.
13:39I was in the moment.
13:41It was a little escape.
13:44I started posting my projects on an Instagram page.
13:48And I stupidly didn't make that account private.
13:57Greg found that account.
14:01And under a fake profile with a scary icon, he started commenting on all of the photos.
14:11Can't tell if you work out to build pecs or you just have the tiniest shit tits.
14:16Either way, they're unattractive and look shit.
14:18No offence.
14:20Some taken.
14:22Why are you so scrawny, yet your thighs look quite flabby?
14:27I would love to believe that I wouldn't let someone's words affect me like they did.
14:32He was criticising everything about me, but also the thing that I love to do.
14:48After those comments, I stopped posting on their Instagram.
14:51I made it private.
14:52I stopped using it and I stopped sewing.
15:07It just felt like another piece of me had been taken.
15:11And it was no longer this escape or this feeling of relief for me.
15:16It became another reminder of him.
15:27The way I began to see myself.
15:33I wasn't even human.
15:44I don't have the words to describe what dysmorphia does to you, but my body wasn't mine anymore.
15:56And I wanted it gone.
16:01I just like, I couldn't get him off me.
16:05And everything he said just became who I was.
16:15Yeah, I felt so gross.
16:17I felt so gross.
16:26Yours started at this point of time where you really are discovering yourself and who you are.
16:31And suddenly who you are is being taken by someone who had no right to do that.
16:36It's being taken and crumpled up and spat on and then given back to you and said,
16:42actually, you thought you were this, but you are this like horrible version of that.
16:48And good luck trying to be normal after that.
16:51They gift you this distorted version of who they think you are and you internalise it.
16:55Worst gift ever.
16:56And then once it's all over, no matter how many million people tell you that you're a good person,
17:00you're this and you're that, you have to process out all of the terrible things
17:06that they've made you think about yourself, you know?
17:09Yeah.
17:15I thought, this is it.
17:16I'll really get away from him.
17:20So my grandfather bought me a bus ticket to Kirikiri to stay with some friends.
17:26My phone was just blowing up constantly.
17:34I was getting constant text messages, constant phone calls.
17:42And it wasn't what he was saying.
17:44It was just that it wouldn't stop.
17:48Babe, please, please talk to me.
17:50Please answer the phone.
17:51Why won't you answer the phone?
17:52Where are you?
17:52What are you doing?
17:56He was posting on Facebook on my page saying that he was going to hang himself.
18:10Why are you there?
18:11I just found out you're in Kirikiri.
18:13What are you doing there?
18:14Who are you staying with?
18:15I'm coming.
18:15I'm coming.
18:16It felt like I was being trapped and hunted at the same time.
18:26And then one day I was walking down the main street in Kirikiri.
18:29And there he was.
18:32It was just you couldn't shake him.
18:36And because he was so constant, he wouldn't leave me alone until I said that I would go with him.
18:52So his mother had offered to buy him and I a ticket to Invercargill.
19:01And that was his bargaining chip.
19:05Come down and meet my family.
19:07Everything will be OK.
19:09It's just the city.
19:10It's just that.
19:12I didn't have a home now.
19:14My home was bashed up.
19:16My family were kind of sick of me at this point.
19:21So I felt like it was my only option.
19:24So I got on the plane.
19:38And you're a mental health advocate.
19:42And that's how he sounds, do you?
19:45Yeah, there's like books and movie and stuff on my story.
19:49It's a real book.
19:51Yeah.
19:58I had a pretty significant journey with mental health growing up.
20:04I feel so.
20:32I get a pretty import.
20:34It's been a massive learning process
20:37to figure out how to deal with the amount of people
20:39that will contact me in crisis situations.
20:43To this day, I still carry a lot of guilt
20:46around people that I haven't been able to save.
20:49I mean, sorry, Jas, for failing you and letting you down.
20:52I can't do this anymore.
20:53I love you so much.
20:54I'm grateful for everything you did to me.
20:56I'm sorry, I love you, goodbye.
20:58You just called the line for laughing?
21:00Yeah.
21:02It's hard.
21:02You want to save everyone, and you can't.
21:09I think as soon as we got into the hotel,
21:11there was just, like, there was just shock.
21:15Police have come to our house, and now we are staying here
21:20so that he doesn't take me.
21:22And then Peter starts messaging again.
21:28I'm sorry for all the problems that I have caused.
21:30I should have never introduced myself into your lives.
21:32I'm deeply sorry for all of the burden that I have put you through.
21:37I'm sorry that it all went wrong inside of my head.
21:39I really am.
21:40I just want to say one final goodbye to Jas.
21:45Jas, so Jas, thank you for your help and keep on doing so.
21:49I hope to meet you in the next life soon.
21:53I think he was playing on what is, like, some of my biggest fears.
22:01And it worked.
22:07As someone who has received people's final goodbye messages before,
22:15I remember, at the time, just feeling so sick and terrified that he had gone and done this.
22:32I got a call from one of the detectives saying that they had their forensic criminal behaviour
22:39psychologist that was going to call me.
22:43He wanted to talk to me about how to keep myself safe with Peter still being free.
22:50When did you first become aware of my case?
22:53When did the police bring you into it?
22:55Probably about 24 hours after it all started.
23:02Nathan began to talk about the things that I needed to do if Peter
23:09tried to do anything to me.
23:12This is an individual that's come over to New Zealand and potentially
23:18wants some sort of connection with you.
23:20Arguably it could have been that it was seeking intimacy.
23:24They've arrived. It hasn't gone to plan.
23:32They've arguably been rejected.
23:34That could cause all sorts of issues in how they cope and try and reconcile that rejection.
23:41Now, if they were to approach you and then you push back against them even more,
23:47that could really flare up.
23:50It definitely amplified my tear at tenfold.
23:53There's a chance that this guy is actually going to hurt me.
24:01You were saying that if he approached me out on the street to be like just so thankful that he's
24:08there and like so kind.
24:09And at the time of you saying that, I remember being like,
24:13how am I, I'm terrified of this guy. How am I supposed to do that?
24:17I was told people who are suicidal don't fear consequences. Saying things like I'll see you in the
24:22next life was a very real chance that he was going to try to take me out with him.
24:30How am I supposed to do that?
24:30Which I already tried to do myself, Peter.
24:40The tiny bit of control I felt that I had, which was keeping everything in my inbox,
24:45was starting to be taken from me.
24:51Greg started reaching out directly to two of my best friends.
24:57I know you secretly somewhat despise Zeni.
25:00I can see it in your eyes.
25:02She's a smug up herself bitch and she honestly doesn't care about anyone but herself.
25:08She'd risk the safety of her friends and her family just to win.
25:13She's a heartless sack of shit narcissist bitch.
25:15She must know what I'm talking about.
25:17She deserves some kind of comeuppance.
25:20Come on, get on board.
25:23Please don't get on board.
25:30I then started getting newsletters.
25:32He signed me up to hundreds.
25:36Imagine how fun it would be to drown Zeni.
25:39Blame Zeni, your shit ass friend.
25:42I remember you sent me that screenshot and I was like,
25:45yeah, I am.
25:47And like, oh, she's, she's going to know it now too.
25:52At one point, you asked me if I'd been in Parapara Umu.
25:57Oh, yeah.
25:59He had messaged me and he'd said,
26:02I know where Anaheeta and Matahana live.
26:05That, I think, was the first time that I was like, oh, it's a means to get to Zeni,
26:09but like me and Matahana could be in danger.
26:13Be in danger.
26:14First name, I see Matahana in Pram.
26:18Last name, I can literally follow her and stab her whenever I see her.
26:23You worthless cow.
26:25You're such a selfish sack of shit.
26:27Holy fuck.
26:28I'm going to mutilate you one day.
26:39I felt really bad for putting her in harm's way.
26:43I felt horrible.
26:47When it stopped being just about me and it started involving other people,
26:52I think that's when you kind of zoom out and you're like, oh, I can handle all of this.
26:59But when you're hurting people I love, fuck you.
27:03I can't believe he messaged you.
27:07And it wouldn't be fun to drown me.
27:16I never thought it would end.
27:19It felt like this was going to be the rest of my life.
27:26I couldn't imagine a future where Greg wasn't harassing me.
27:34Oh, these ones are horrible.
27:38This spree of mess issues really frightened me.
27:46This isn't going to end well for either of us, Zini.
27:49So let's hope I fall in love with someone or you decide to stop being a bitch and sit down
27:53and have a chat.
27:54Or we might be playing games for the rest of our lives,
27:57because I don't have much else to live for, especially after my mum dies.
28:01You probably have a bright future with a husband and kids.
28:05Have you considered that I might not get over this for 10 to 20 years?
28:09You have ignored me for six and now it's way worse.
28:12Your future could be endangered by not dealing with me now.
28:18What if you fall in love with someone else and I kill the guy because I couldn't handle you being
28:23with someone else?
28:26That made it really hard to date.
28:33Oh, I hate this one.
28:38This is the one I think about the most to this day.
28:42One day when you think this is all over and you have a family of your own and I'm all
28:47alone,
28:47I'm going to kill your child in front of you or your husband.
28:50I'll make you regret what you did to me, you worthless bitch.
28:58Yeah, that was still on.
29:02These messages made the pockets of silence and still do
29:09feel scary because I'm just waiting for him to come back.
29:14It makes me afraid to develop relationships.
29:18It makes me afraid to connect with people.
29:23Yeah.
29:27Those ones really hurt.
29:35There was one day when the stalking was particularly bad and I took the morning off work.
29:41Mum asked to get a coffee with me.
29:43And as we sat there in the cafe, she pulled out the story of Farzana that she'd read in the
29:48news.
29:59Farzana was this beautiful young student who had everything going for her.
30:07She was killed.
30:10When she was being stalked.
30:13Singh stabbed her 12 times in broad daylight after waiting for her near this alleyway in West Auckland.
30:22As you approached her with your knife, she will have realised that her attempts to avoid your attentions
30:28over many prior months had been fruitless.
30:32You sharing Farzana's story with me changed everything and it changed my whole perspective of our situation.
30:40The experience of it turning out so fucking bad.
30:44It just, like I just remember, like, I don't think the possible escalation, eh, you know, the similarities were, were
30:56chilling, they were chilling.
30:59Farzana's story was the first time that I realised, oh, the outcome of this experience could be that I die.
31:12She didn't solicit his attention and, you know, it happened.
31:17And she said, no, she was kind enough to, I think she must have gone out with him for a
31:24coffee or something because she's a nice person.
31:26And this happened and this happened and when she said, no, he didn't disappear.
31:32Miss Yakubi first made a 10-5 online report to police in October 2022.
31:37She provided screenshots of messages the man sent her.
31:41You threatened to kidnap her, saying you would give her 365 days to fall in love with you.
31:50In another, you threatened to throw acid on her face.
31:57Fearing for her safety, she went to the Henderson police station and made a statement about his stalking.
32:03Just under two weeks later, she was killed.
32:08Farzana's death was so avoidable.
32:13She did everything right.
32:15She reported to the police.
32:17Today, the Independent Police Conduct Authority report came out
32:21and found the 21-year-old law student may have been saved if police acted sooner.
32:33I recognised so much of my experience and what she went through.
32:37I felt this instant connection to her.
32:42And it was like seeing mum react to a young girl who could have been me that brought me out
32:50of my body and kind of made me think, oh, I don't want my mum to experience that.
32:56And that, I think, was the real point where I thought, okay, like, I think I need to stop downplaying
33:03what's happening.
33:03I think I can see where this might go.
33:06I don't even know what the right word is, but I just, like, took that to heart and I feel
33:10like I, in a sense, carry her with me wherever I am every day and I feel I don't want
33:16to be talking about this.
33:17But I think that Farzana would be doing the same, and I think that I'm the lucky one.
33:24When you see something like this, the fact that you resonated with it is, one, terrifying for you, but also,
33:34like, something so tragic has to be for a reason.
33:38What's happening?
33:38Yeah.
33:41Yeah.
33:45Yeah.
33:46It can't be for nothing.
33:47Yeah.
33:49Yeah.
33:51Yeah.
33:52Yeah.
33:53Yeah.
33:54Yeah.
33:57Yeah.
33:58Yeah.
33:59I was aあっ tien.
34:02Okay.
34:07I'm ready for the night.
34:11Greg had been harassing me for eight years when I finally went to the police.
34:18I'd been building this case without even knowing it and collecting all of this like shitty
34:25stuff and showing no one.
34:31And then finally someone was like here let me take that and I just went and I just handed
34:37it all over.
34:41And they said let us deal with it.
34:45When they issued Greg with the harassment warning letter, the harassment stopped and
34:54it felt so good.
34:56I thought okay this is what he needed.
35:00He needed to know that there were going to be repercussions.
35:06My phone stopped buzzing.
35:10The messages stopped popping up.
35:14I felt like I could breathe again.
35:18And I thought huh it was that easy.
35:21I just had to report to the police and it was going to go away.
35:25The feeling of just existing without this noise, without this constant noise.
35:35It was like turning the kitchen fan off when you've been cooking.
35:40And you don't realise how intense it is.
35:44And then it's gone and you think oh my god how did I go through that?
36:11As much as he has terrified us, the thought of him taking his life over this.
36:18This would ruin me even more, like I couldn't even comprehend.
36:30When I get to the police station they tell me we found him.
36:35He's alive and we've arrested him.
36:38And then the lead detective came back in.
36:41She said we can't hold him, but they told me that he was going to be getting served with
36:48a trespass notice from my house and a criminal harassment order.
36:53He would be arrested if he broke the criminal harassment order, which is what they were hoping.
36:58That sounds really weird to say, but it's true.
37:02I got a call from another detective who I think was one of the big senior ones and he was
37:08saying,
37:09I need to know, like every frontline officer is aware of it, everyone knows about it, everyone is there.
37:15All he wants to do is drop kick him out of the country, but he can't do that.
37:28I remember sitting down on the plane next to him and I remember just thinking,
37:36of course, of course I am trapped in a plane with this person.
37:46He was right, I was his, he did own me.
38:00He, he took my fight away.
38:13So I land in the metropolis of Invercargill.
38:21It is at the bottom of New Zealand, it is a very, very long way from home.
38:31I meet his family.
38:34Everyone is nice and they're normal, as I can see.
38:39Like, do they know that he's this kind of person?
38:45His mask only ever could stay on for so long.
38:53We were listening to the singer and his name was Shwayze.
38:58We liked it, the siblings liked it, we were all kind of singing along.
39:02And then I mentioned that I had seen in a magazine that they said that he was well in doubt.
39:08And he just lost it.
39:14That was enough for him to spiral out of control and get insanely jealous.
39:21He grabbed me by the hair, he picked me up, dropped me on the floor.
39:28At that point I just wasn't even fighting back.
39:32His siblings were really scared and they called the parents who came home.
39:38And I haven't listened to Corona and Lyme ever since.
39:48His mother separated us and I slept in the room with the younger sister for the night.
39:53And then the next morning we decided to go down to the police station.
39:58My ex had found out that we were not at home, so he had decided to run after us.
40:06I remember his mother and I running towards this cop trying to get his attention.
40:14The cop saw me. He put me inside in the office.
40:20He took Nathan and put him in a cell.
40:26I knew at that moment that I was done with him and I was done with his fucking family
40:30and I couldn't wait to get out of there and I was never seeing this man again.
40:37And I thought, you guys can sort it out now.
40:40I'm going to live my life. He's your problem now.
41:05I had left this violent man. I was in the women's refuge and I called my father Peter who lived
41:13here.
41:13And said exactly what no daughter wants to say to her dad, which is, I'm in trouble.
41:20And my dad just said, you get home.
41:25And I got on that plane, left the South Island and I came home to Barrieta Hill.
41:32And I had the most beautiful summer of my life.
41:50I could hear myself again. I felt freedom in a way that I can't explain.
42:01I felt like I had gotten rid of a disease.
42:07I met a guy and we started dating and I thought that I would just finally meet someone who was
42:17kind and lovely.
42:21I really started to think that this could be it for me, that I could have a happy life, maybe
42:33have a family.
42:39You come back to this island that's surrounded by water and you think, I'm good now.
42:49We really thought that the worst part was over.
43:14He's threatening to kill me, kill himself, everything.
43:18It felt like until Greg killed me, the police weren't interested.
43:26Everything started to intensify.
43:29I can't be honest with you.
43:32And I thought, oh, it's never gonna end.
43:36And he just said, bet you're happy to see me, bitch.
43:40I was really hoping for more of a justice ending.
44:10Fe bad news?
44:22I was going to talk to you guys who.
Comments