Scottish television presenter Natalie Pike has revealed how she turned detective to identify and help convict her stalker during a terrifying eight-month ordeal.
The 43-year-old former model secured a conviction against a man who had secretly followed her, contacted people close to her and appeared at her workplace.
Ms Pike, who was born in Edinburgh and works for the BBC and Manchester City’s television channel, began investigating the harassment herself. She now hopes speaking publicly about her experience will support other stalking victims.
The presenter, who covered Scotland’s World Cup campaign in Boston this summer, said the ordeal began to escalate in February this year when two men parked outside her local hair salon in a van. They told staff they knew she was a customer and demanded to know where she lived.
The alarming visit led to a series of frantic phone calls from her hairdresser to Ms Pike and her son’s school.
Ms Pike started looking into the men’s identities and found a string of increasingly sinister Instagram messages in a previously hidden folder. They had been sent by a man she did not follow or recognise and dated back 18 months.
Natalie Pike said supporting Scotland in Boston provided welcome relief from her stalking ordeal
The broadcaster regularly reports from Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium
“They began in the usual way: ‘Happy Birthday’, ‘You’re beautiful’, that kind of thing,” she said. “Then they started deteriorating. So I took a screenshot of this person’s profile, sent it to my hairdresser and she instantly confirmed it was the same man she had seen.”
A week later, on February 21, Ms Pike was working on a pitchside broadcast at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium when she spotted a man standing near the barriers and staring at her. She recognised him as the person from Instagram who had appeared at her hairdresser’s salon.
The encounter triggered a panic attack, and she immediately contacted the police.
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“I ran up to the public address announcer’s room, and I had my first experience of a panic attack,” she said.
“I stood in the corner, burst out crying and just couldn’t catch my breath. Police took it seriously and, using the stadium CCTV, they were able to pinpoint him.”
She described watching footage of the man approaching her as “harrowing”. “He never took his eyes off me. He came in at the back of the stand and then, over a 20-minute period, moved down and stopped several times until he was about a metre away from me,” she said.
Ms Pike praised the police for responding immediately, saying officers “took it seriously” from the outset. The man was arrested the following morning, and police took her statement.
She later learned that the man had been messaging her best friend and other acquaintances. His phone also contained photographs of himself sitting at a pub near her home, as well as images of her ex-husband’s car.
Telling her family brought further distress. Ms Pike’s mother, who has stage 4 bowel cancer, collapsed after hearing what had happened.
“I scrambled an ambulance and she ended up in hospital for five weeks,” Ms Pike said. “The stalking came on top of an incredibly difficult year for my family, magnifying the pressure and anxiety.”
While waiting for the court proceedings to finish, Ms Pike was invited by the Scottish FA to travel to Boston. She said the assignment gave her valuable breathing space during the ordeal.
In a social media post yesterday, the broadcaster thanked her parents, friends and Manchester City for their support. She also said she had received counselling and specialist help from anti-stalking charity the Suzy Lamplugh Trust.
Encouraging others to contact the charity, she said: ‘I want anyone who is experience stalking to know that support is available. I know the statistics can make frightening reading, but please don’t let that stop you from reporting what is happening and asking for help. Please reach out to them.’
Her stalker pleaded guilty to stalking involving serious alarm or distress, and was given an 18-month custodial sentence, suspended for 12 months. He was also handed a restraining order banning him from contacting her.