The Mancunian Way: Stalking the stalkers

Andrew Munro was a spurned husband, an IT specialist and a ‘danger’ to anyone he felt had humiliated him. It was a deadly combination.

Suspecting his wife Clare was cheating on him, Munro set about stalking her. He fitted CCTV cameras in their house and a tracking device to her car before savagely stabbed her 51 times at the family home in Culceth near Warrington. In November 2015 he was jailed for life for her murder.

Sentencing Munro, the judge Mr Justice Turner told him: “Your calm tones recorded on the 999 call as you stabbed her corpse was indicative of an iron and chilling self-control. You will be a danger to anyone you consider to have humiliated you.”

It was a case which, the court heard, would ‘scar the lives of witnesses forever’. But, it was also the catalyst for the creation of a specialist police unit whose sole mission is to stalk the stalkers and bring them to justice.

Stalking is a crime which can cause deep, lasting psychological damage. But its causes are often not fully understood.

“There are different types of stalkers, different contexts in which it occurs,” said Det Sgt David Thomason, who was on duty when Clare Munro was murdered. “Unless we start treating it primarily as a public health problem, not just a legal one for the police to solve, we will never be able to manage the risk properly."

But Cheshire Police’s 20-strong Harm Reduction Unit is trying to turn the tables. Made up of detectives, psychologists, mental health nurses and probation officers, they are the pioneers in tackling dark behaviour which can escalate from someone being a persistent pest to a killer.

And, as chief reporter Neal Keeling found out, their work is saving lives.

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