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in their childhoods that have disturbed their ability to deal with relationships. They are incapable of experiencing the pain of separation in the normal way, of letting go and looking for another relationship. Often their anger at abandonment is a defence against a reawakening of the intolerable pain and humiliation of childhood rejection, which may add to their more recent sense of loss.

    It is difficult, the author wrote, to imagine the intensity of the fear and anguish felt by the victim. The terror is so intense and so constant that it is often beyond the understanding of anyone not directly involved.
    There was a passage run through with an orange highlighter.
    As the terrorism escalates, the life of the victim becomes a prison. The victim hurries from the protective cover of home to that of the workplace, then home again, just like a prisoner being transferred from one cell to another. But often not even the workplace is a refuge. Some victims are too terrified to leave home. They live confined and alone, peeking out at the world from behind barred shutters.
    I let out a brief whistle, not much more than an almost soundless breath of air. This was exactly what Sister Claudia had said. She stays at home, shut in, as if she’s in prison . That’s what she’d said, and at the time I hadn’t paid too much attention.
    Now I realized it was more than just a line.
    I picked up the file again and had another look at the charges, which I’d just skimmed through before. The most interesting was that for the offence of threatening behaviour, that is, to all intents and purposes, for stalking. Apart from the abuse, the bodily harm and the telephone harassment, Scianatico was charged:
    with the offence as under articles 81, 610, 61n.1 and 5 of the penal code, in that with a number of actions carried out with one and the same criminal intention, acting for base and yet senseless motives, and taking such advantage of circumstances of time, place and person as to reduce the possibilities of self-defence, he forced Martina Fumai (after the end of the period during
which they were cohabitating more uxorio, in which environment the offence of domestic abuse as described in the preceding charge was noted) using violence and threats, both explicit and implicit, as described in greater detail in the charges which follow: (1) to endure his constant, persistent, persecutory presence in the vicinity of her place of habitation, place of work and places of usual frequentation; (2) to gradually abandon her usual occupations and social relations; (3) to live in her home in a state of substantial deprivation of personal freedom, unable to go out freely without being subjected to harassment, as described above and also in greater detail in the charges which follow; (4) to go to and from her place of work substantially restricted in her personal freedom and with the necessary accompaniment (intended to prevent or resist the attacks of Signor Scianatico) of third parties . . .
    It struck me that this was a kind of situation I’d never really thought about. Obviously there had been times when I’d had to deal with marriages or relationships that had ended badly. Obviously I’d had to deal with the violence and harassment that often followed these endings. I’d always considered them minor deeds. A mere coda to failed relationships. Small acts of violence, insults, repeated harassment.
    Minor offences.
    I’d never thought about the extent to which these minor offences could devastate the victims’ lives.
    I went back to the photocopies Alessandra Mantovani had given me.
    The stalker is a predator who acts in such a way as to cause emotional distress and arouse a reasonable fear of being killed or suffering physical abuse. It is difficult to
imagine the intensity of the fear and anguish felt by the victim. The terror is so intense and so constant that it is often beyond the understanding of anyone not directly involved.
    And so on.
    I started