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Sweeney Talks

Coming Soon: The Followers

Sweeney Talks

Global

Society & Culture, Politics, Government, News

4.21.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2022

⏱️ 7 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Shelagh Fogarty began her LBC career as a guest presenter in 2014, and her balanced and calm presenting style soon earned her a permanent role. Heartbreakingly, it was this calm approach which led to the most harrowing ordeal of Shelagh's life, when a man stalked her for nearly 2 years. In 2017, Shelagh began to notice the same face appearing in crowds, on the tube, outside her work. She dismissed it at first, but then the appearances became more and more frequent and noticeable - he was there when she met friends, when she travelled across London, at her local train station, and even when he followed her home.??The Followers is a 5-part LBC podcast series where Shelagh talks about the disturbing stages she went through during her stalking: dismissing it, fearing it, and feeling powerless as she was forced to live a limited life. The podcast also included conversations with experts and victims, looking at how societal views, misogyny and popular media tropes may be enabling stalkers to commit crimes without intervention.? Shelagh wanted to tell her story and to speak with various experts to understand more about obsessive and controlling behaviour, to deal with what happened to her on a personal level and to help others identify the behaviour that can lead to stalking. All 5 episodes will be available from July 4th exclusively on Global Player. Download it now from the App store or go to https://www.globalplayer.com If you think you or someone you know is being stalked, please call the police or the National stalking helpline on 0808 802 0300

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, I'm John Sweeney and I'm here to tell you about a new LBC podcast called The Followers, hosted by Sheila Fogarty.

0:19.3

For nearly two years, Sheila was stalked by a complete stranger.

0:23.4

This awful experience has had a profound effect on Sheila's life,

0:28.1

and in this podcast she bravely recounts her own personal experience

0:32.0

and looks at how the law around stalking is barely fit for purpose.

0:38.4

Sheila's with me now to tell us a bit more about her reason for making this podcast.

0:44.2

Sheila, why did you want to make this podcast?

0:49.2

It was such a big thing that happened to me,

0:51.3

and nobody was more surprised at the depths of its effect on me than I was

0:58.2

because to start with I kind of batted it away as an annoyance and irritation something that could

1:06.9

easily be managed out of my life, managed away.

1:16.0

And I learnt the hard way that that's not how stalking works.

1:17.7

Stalkers are obsessive.

1:21.1

They don't give up easily.

1:23.1

They don't stop easily.

1:32.1

It takes an awful lot to dissuade a stalker from carrying on. So I was approaching it with too much of a focus on just a simple managing it out, thinking it would be a quick situation and it wasn't.

1:40.5

I was really clear at the end of this experience, if it's not really over, it's never over really.

1:46.2

I was really clear that there was a lot to know about this

1:49.5

and that I could have managed it differently, better, faster.

1:56.8

And there was so much to it that I wanted to dig into, into the issue of stalking.

2:03.0

I just wanted to know more about it.

2:06.8

And actually, I very actively wanted people to have information about it.

...

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