by Sharon Swan

Created on: January 21, 2009

I feel like I am uniquely qualified to comment on how to handle a stalker.

In 1973 when I was 18 a 15 year old girl gave my name and school to police when she was arrested in Goulbourn in New South Wales. That began a stalking that has continued for more than thirty years.

The newspapers picked up the story because the girl absconded from the police station, disappearing back to her own school in Goulbourn.

Meanwhile I was with my parents in Port Moresby.

My arrival into Sydney and school in Moss Vale was not happy. I was sternly isolated from the other students until after I spoke to police. I only had one short newspaper article for information. The article's wording was uncomplimentary. Everyone seemed to be angry with me. It was only after I was identified by the police as not being the girl picked up two weeks previously that the real miscreant was finally identified.

And I had absolutely no idea who could have done such a mean thing.

A court case ensued when the school sued the girl for defamation. The 15 year old girl could not be identified, and many people assumed that even though I was not involved directly I must have done something awful to annoy her into giving my name to police. Several journalists realised that the girl had some psychological problems and published her name. They published her full name, not the name by which she identified herself. The journalists were, from memory, all fined for doing so.

I had briefly met the girl while she and her parents visited the boarding school I attended. She was provocative, trying to make us fight with her. Her tactics ranged from stand-over bullying to pretend-crying and pleading for sympathy. Once sympathy was offered, the girl viciously attacked the person offering it. Generally she behaved much younger than she proved to be. She had to be removed from the school after two days as she physically assaulted at least three students.There was no reason to implicate me as far as I know; my suspicion is that she just thought I had a pretty name. The other two students who were assaulted were both very smart, top of their class academically.

I was not allowed to be present at the court during her trial. I was told that it would be too upsetting for me.
I think the school management may have worried that I would disclose too much information, as another student from our school actually was present during the crime the 15 year old was arrested for.

I had to ask that the newspapers in the school library be left

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