12/11/2012 Inside Out South East

A living nightmare, the reality for women who have a stalker. I looked

at him and his face was... I knew he was going to kill me. How the

Kents wine-growers at marriage the wettest drought we've ever known.

It is the first time I have known it be this late and we will be

picking the crop late. And a Brighton campaign to stop reptiles

being kept as pets. We have huge public and political support to

achieve our aims and I am confident we will get there. It will never

happen. We will continue the struggle. We will not be beaten.

am Natalie Graham with untold stories closer to home from all

around the south-east, this is Hello, I'm in Biddenden in Kent. We

are back later but first, Imagine what it's like having a stalker.

Someone following you around - threatening and intimidating you.

Now a new law is about to come into force that specifically

concentrates on making stalking a crime. But will it make women any

safer? We all get a certain pleasure from

watching a horror film when your heart starts beating faster the

adrenalin starts pumping. But what's it like when you can't turn

the television off, when you've lost all control, all your security

has gone all the normality in your life, that's what it's like when

It's a hidden crime that's often misunderstood, it's a crime that's

very hard to prove and a crime that can lead to murder. I will always

know when my stalker is out and about and following me because I

can feel it. I don't necessarily see him some of the time but I can

sense it instinctively know that he is around and it makes me feel very

scared and very frightened. find yourself in a period where,

you know, lying down because you can't physically get up then it all

starts again, you know you'll get that phone call or you'll there is

It may seem like a letter here, the odd text there, someone walking

past you in the street, but for victims it means living your life

in constant fear. The vast majority of stalking is vicious unpleasant,

intimidating behaviour by obsessive fixated men who want to hurt and

damage their victims and tragically every year dozens of women are

seriously hurt and many of them are It's estimated that there are

120,000 cases of stalking in the UK every year, and it's mainly men

threatening women. Women are often stalked hundreds of times before

having the courage to report it. But those who do report it often

feel they're not taken seriously by the police, or by prosecutors. And

even if they are taken seriously, they feel that the current law is

inadequate. Until now there has been no specific law that defines

stalking as a criminal offence. Cases were prosecuted under the

Protection Against Harassment Act. But now things are about to change.

After a group of victims came to Parliament and told their personal

stories, a new law has been introduced which makes stalking a

And in a few weeks' time the new law comes into force but how

exactly will it help victims? Stalkers are rarely strangers, Sam

Taylor from Brighton has been stalked by her ex-partner for the

past four years. Because we'd all known him, because obviously people

like this who behave in this way they don't look like Darth Vader or

Voldemort, they just look like Her ordeal started when she found

out her partner was on the sex offenders' register for raping a

child eight years before he met her. She asked him to leave the family

home and that's when things took a sinister turn for the worse.

night after I put the children to bed, I came into the living room

and I was picking up toys that the children had been playing with and

I stood up to find a massive knife, unfolded on the shelf next to me,

and and then I looked at him and his face was, I knew he was going

It's indescribable, really it's like an animal instinct. His face

had completely changed. Sam and her children moved in with

her parents. He was arrested and released on bail then the stalking

began. He seemed to know where I was the

whole time, so if I parked in a car park in the town centre he would

know where my car was. He would leave toys, letters, money, on the

windscreen of my car. When I was driving around when I pulled out of

a road he'd suddenly drive past, he just knew everywhere I was. I went

back to my home with my father and as soon as I went into the front

garden he was there calling out my name so I raced back into the house,

phoned the police. While the police were on their way to my house my

mum phoned me screaming down the phone because he was now trying to

The campaign of stalking, and intimidation continued. He was

constantly arrested and yet he still managed to harass her. Even

from prison. He sent hundreds of letters from

prison, sometimes he would just send letters calling me a different

name to get around the restraining order, he sent me this letter here

which is a suicide letter, just to give you a quick example of the

kind of things that he would say: 'I'm so sorry, but I'm off to a

better place which is pain-free. I'll always be by your side trying

to look after you. Your very own She and her children were assessed

by police as being at high risk of homicide. And yet he was allowed to

live just five minutes from her house. Despite all of his previous

convictions he was able to apply from prison to see his children.

And she had to face him in court. What was really horrifying, I think,

initially was the fact that he was permitted to break his restraining

order, to enter the area of Brighton and Hove, in order to

attend the family court. I'd also requested screens in court and it

was stated that that would be up to the judge on the day. And every

single time I attended the family court I was refused screens.

Eventually social services assessed the situation and decided Sam's

partner was dangerous. He then withdrew his application to see the

children, but is able to apply to see them again. Sam feels that

because of his previous convictions her ex-partner should not have been

able to apply to see them in the first place. She feels she was let

down by a system that was supposed to protect her and her children and

she's not the only one. 125,000 victims a year, only half report it

to the police, and of that half, 50,000, just 2% of perpetrators

went to jail, 10% were fined or given a community sentence, and the

rest of the cases just disappeared into the ether, they were

discontinued. So proof that the victims are not taken seriously by

the police, by prosecutors and even by the probation service that I

work with. Claire Waxman from London has been stalked by an

obsessive man for nearly a decade. She also feels that she was not

taken seriously. When I first went to the police, there wasn't much

understanding of what was going on for me. A few of them made jokes at

the very start, that it was very flattering what I was experiencing

and they didn't understand why I was feeling fearful. You don't

choose to be a victim, a victim of a crime. I naively thought you go

to the police, and then it goes to court, and then it all gets sorted.

I remember the first court case being really hopeful that this

would be the only court case I would ever have to attend, and

naively thought 'wonderful, it'll all be sorted'. And now nine years

later, of so many court cases and hearings and appeals and sentences

that it's shown me that there is so little understanding within the

system of stalking, and of what victims go through.

Sam and Claire were two of six victims that spoke to MPs about

their terrifying experiences, reducing many of them to tears, and

bringing about the change in the law. So just how will it help

victims? What we now have is stalking defined in law, as either

creating a fear of violence to the woman, or in some cases the man, or

psychological damage such that the individual changes their normal

daily behaviour to avoid contact with the stalker. We already have a

law in Scotland, a stalking law, that came in in December 10, and

already there have been close on 500 prosecutions. In the previous

ten years there were 7 a year. many victims, and campaigners

believe that the law change alone won't be enough. They want police

and prosecutors better trained to deal with stalking and for

attitudes to change. Why is it officers have not always taken this

crime as seriously as they might? think the police service has

changed quite a lot. We're much better at learning from mistakes

now, there've been a number of high profile incidents that have served

as really good examples of how we could have done things better.

is part of the problem that an officer will listen to one offence

that's been committed but not link it up to all the others. Yes,

absolutely, I think that has happened, I think this law will

help, because it frames a course of action around stalking, either

violent or non-violent, but certainly I think there has, there

are examples and Sam's is a good example of where we've looked at a

number of different crimes in isolation rather than a pattern of

behavior and I think this will help in changing that and painting a

holistic picture when we take the So both Claire's and Sam's story

have helped to change the law and they are hopeful that this will

start to make a difference. And Sam feels that the change in the law is

a step in the right direction but for her like many victims of

stalking, the fear and anxiety will always be there. Will it ever be

over for you? No, I don't, because when you're assessed as high risk

the risk never goes away. So I can just carry on as I am, raising

awareness of the situation and trying to make it better for myself

and for other people. In a way your voice is your power. Yes,

Coming up on Inside Out: Keeping reptiles as pets, is it

cruel or are campaigners over- reacting? There are such a range of

factors that can describe why an animal behaves in a certain way, it

is wrong to say that it is doing it because it is stressed. We need to

get cleverer Fermat. Now, if you are watching Inside Out,

sipping a well-earned glass of Chardonnay and looking forward to

this year's Beaujolais Nouveau, spare a thought for Kent's

vineyards with wine expert Tim Atkin. There are some grapes at the

bottom that are not so good near the road. We will be ruthless about

what we pick to start with. Welcome to Biddenden, the oldest

commercial vineyard in Kent. Grapes were first cultivated on these

gentle south-facing slopes near Ashford way back in 1969.$$NEWLINE

It's the busiest time of the season for owner Julian Barnes with the

grape harvest finally underway. It's the busiest time of year for

the owner with the grape harvest under way but this year it is

better late than never. Julian, what has it been like

growing grapes in a year like this? I think it has been a really

wearing time. Torrential downpour after torrential downpour. When you

are sitting there with a crop like this, you don't sleep and then when

you get up it has been grey all day and of course the other side of

that if obviously the amount that people have been able to enjoy

themselves and the feel good factor is obviously relevant to sales.

Because tourism is a big bit of what you do here isn't it? We have

had 33,000 visitors this year to the vineyard, and I can't say that

we've ever had a weekend when we've had people sitting around the yard

drinking bottles of wine. And some of his grapes may not make it into

a bottle at all. There will be varieties, I think, probably like

Gamay, that we don't normally pick until the end of October beginning

of November, when the leaves are starting to fall. If we pick those

I would be very surprised. What grapes need over the summer is

some nice sunbathing weather, and we all know there has been precious

little of that this summer. In fact this has been the second dullest

and wettest summer since records began, and to add insult to injury,

temperatures have been half a degree below average too.

And a poor harvest is the last thing our vignerons need right now,

just as English wines are beginning to make their mark at home and

abroad. It has that aromatic quality as well. If you don't get

that in English wine, there is something wrong with it. It is

classic English. Julia Trustram Eve speaks for the

English Wine Producers. What we have seen is a real growth in the

industry over the past few years. Over the last seven years for

example our acreage has almost doubled. And what does this

terrible summer mean for English wine? It has certainly been a very

challenging year, we can't deny that fact. We've all lived through

the summer of 2012, haven't we? But it's interesting, it has been

patchy in the sense that you've got some parts of the country where

really the grapes, the quality of the grapes is looking good and

we've got others that obviously have been challenged because it has

been a difficult year for them. Worrying signs that this year's

harvest could prove troublesome were plain to see when we visited

Biddenden back in the summer. Here you can see the problem we

have had with the wet weather this year. The small grapes that you can

see within the bunch are where the grape hasn't set properly at

flowering time because it is so wet. Each individual grape has like a

cap and it produces a little flower, and if that cap doesn't come off

and it sticks on there, then you get these tiny little grapes that

are going to be very sweet, but there are not enough of the bigger

berries on the outside of it to give you any quantity.

I think this is the first time for a long time that I've known it

being this late and it is going to leave it very close to the mark in

terms of being able to produce the quality, it will be a brave man who

wins, I think. But if you think the signs have

been looking ominous at Biddenden, spare a thought for the owner of

this vineyard a little further north in Suffolk. Neil Gillis sells

his wine to local shops, pubs and restaurants, as well as sharing

with friends. Can I try the Thelnetham fizz? Certainly, let us

have a go at opening match. Output is small, just 3,000 bottles

a year, so it is more of a hobby than a business. Which is probably

just as well in a year like this! Show me a bunch of grapes if you

can call it a bunch of grapes. is really sad actually cos this

time of year they would be really plumped up and juicy, but if you

look at that they are shriveled, dry, there is virtually no juice in

there whatsoever. So what is going to happen to this year's crop?

just going to leave it on there. It is not worth the effort of

harvesting it to be honest. I am not going to pick a single grape,

unfortunately not, no. But Neil is not alone. Much bigger players than

him are in trouble too. Nyetimber, who are one of the biggest and most

famous producers in the country just announced last week that they

are not going to be producing any wine this year. What is your

reaction to that. The decision that Nyetimber took

this year not to pick in 2012 was theirs alone, and they are one of

England's largest producers. But we do have a number of other very

large producers as well who are going ahead and they are picking

and they are producing some really very good grapes. Here are the

great that we have picked today. They are being pressed and that

Jews will be settled in a tank overnight. So what is the verdict

on this year's harvest at Biddenden? Julian will certainly be

making less wine than usual but he's pleased that unlike some he's

at least got a crop worth pressing. The harvest is nearly over, how are

your nerves? I am ready for some time out, it's been sleepless

nights of listening to rain pouring down on a crop, but it's what it's

been like all year. But you got through it. We got through it and

next year it will be better, won't it? Let's hope so.

It would be unfair to write off English wine on the basis of one

bad vintage, but one thing is for certain, English wine growers won't

want to have to go through another year like this one.

Tim Atkin reporting. Now, we are a nation of pet lovers.

Almost half of us own an animal of some sort, but increasingly we're

looking for something more exotic like snakes and geckos. But

campaigners here in the South East want that stopped. They want to end

reptiles being kept as pets altogether. Richard Daniel

investigates. This is a reptile show where

enthusiasts get together, show off and buy and sell animals. All part

of a harmless hobby. Or is it? Campaigners say these shows are

cruel and even illegal and should be stopped. I've come to see for

myself. The first thing I find out is that

this can become an all consuming hobby. This isn't about reptiles

caught in the wild. Many of the exhibitors breed them themselves.

They come to sell their spare animals. Just to get rid of some

surplus stock, it really. I cannot physically house much more. They're

all bred in my bedroom. A wind- chill is turned into an incubator.

I cut my bed in half to fit some more snakes in. It is down to 30

inches. There are about 10 shows like this a year. This is the

biggest. Dean has come to find something to add to his collection

of 30 snakes which he breeds at home in Essex. These are young

gargoyle geckos. They are bred by her friend and died. They are all

captive-bred animals. They only youngsters are making grow quite a

bit from that. This species I have always been interested in. I mainly

keeps snakes like boas and pythons so this is different from me.

Obviously the care is very similar. You will take them home tonight in

this box? How do you get them back? They will be in this box and I have

these heat packs which I snap and poppet in there and they will have

a warm temperature for the journey home.

So is all this harming the animals? Clifford Warwick was once a reptile

breeder himself. He then began studying them and says their

behaviour shows they suffer. What concerns me is their welfare is at

risk that these events. What sort of behaviour? The most common

things you hear his -- seat is interaction with transparent

boundaries, and animal cloy at the glass. If an animal has a warm

environment with everything it needs to survive, it is very driven

by his genetics. When it is confined to a transparent boundary,

its mind cannot get round it and it is a confusion and distress of.

That is common. We see a great deal of hyperactivity which seems to be

related to wishes to escape the environment? Where is the

scientific proof behind that? are about 20 papers that have

looked into this and the papers show that the behaviour is stress-

related. It is not unlike having an animal like a dog and you put that

in a vivarium and look at it Barking and screaming all day and

think it is normal. You would probably not do it. For some reason

because a reptile does not bar can scream people think it is all right.

Show organisers have drafted in ex RSPCA officer Tim Wass, now an

independent welfare consultant, to carry out inspections. What are you

on the lookout for? Anything and everything to do with animal

welfare, any breaches, Animal Health and to make sure everything

is legal. You talk about welfare, I look at these tiny boxes and think

it is cruel. Not at all, these are micro-climate. It is counter-

intuitive, I know. The climate they are in, I would not want the

animals in bigger accommodation than this for there purposes of

Transport and show. Are there signs of stress? Not necessarily. It

depends on the environment and the temperature at how long, there are

so many factors which can describe why an animal behaves in a certain

way. It is so simple and wrong to say that it is doing it because it

is stressed, we need to get cleverer than that. Animal welfare

is not the only of rejection. You claimed affairs spread disease.

Where is the evidence? We have done biological analysis and taken swabs

that showed there are a number of salmonella related bacteria on door

handles and elsewhere. It is an infection or and the infection hubs

are widely known to have negative impact on local and national health.

These events get many people through the door, they could be

50,000 people are coming to an event in England. Where is the

evidence there is a disease issue? Some people are offering a free

service that if they have a legal claim get salmonella they will help

but it has never happened. Enthusiasts are desperate to keep

the shows going. They can swop information and learn from each

other. They also come to buy and sell. Prices start at just a few

pounds, but I was amazed how much these creatures can be worth.

is a reticulated python which is a super time gap anthrax. This is one

of two in Europe at the moment. They're worth about �18,000. They

are so unique. They have only been in existence for less than a year.

But as things stand I couldn't buy this snake today. That's because

its owner is a commercial dealer with a shop. Under Animal Welfare

law commercial dealers can't trade at shows, but hobbyists can sell

their surplus animals. Campaigners say that's not what the law

intended and they're challenging that. In the eyes of the law these

fares are legal. These events were outlawed in 1993 but at the time

the legislation was changed. We saw animals sold in streets markets,

not just these but a whole range of Peps, so that the spirit of the law

was to stop the trading of environments in environments such

as these. We have been investigating for a number of years

and we find that the sheer scale and volume of animals is enough to

demonstrate that these are commercially driven events.

The law may be open to interpretation but so far there's

never been a prosecution. However the campaign to stop them has had

some success. Some councils now won't allow shows on their property.

Reptile owners are worried. They want the government to clarify the

law and introduce licensing. If we can get the licensing in place, it

deals with any argument. What we are dealing about -- arguing about

is money. We seem to be more interested in today it is whether

someone is making a bit of money about it. Maybe some are, but the

majority will not because these are expensive animals to look after.

What would licensing mean it to the fair? It would allow us to bring in

more regulation. We have done all the regulation that we can for

ourselves and we need the government to step in and license

it just in the same way as they would a pet shop but it would give

local authorities control. Campaigners don't want licenses.

Ending the shows is part of a wider campaign which they've taken to the

European Parliament. To be clear, what you want to do is see people

banned from keeping these creatures as pets? We want to see a ban on

trade and keeping of reptiles as pets. We have huge public and

political support to actually achieve our aims and I am confident

we will get there. It will never happen. We will continue the

struggle. We have got to where we are today and we will not be beaten.

Now, if you want any more information on tonight's show, you

can visit our local Kent or Sussex websites, and even watch the whole

show again by clicking on our iPlayer at bbc.co.uk/insideout.

iPlayer at bbc.co.uk/insideout. Coming up next week:

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The new idea that could create the ideal environment for wildlife in

the South East. We have a few wildlife preserves but we need her

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