One phone call, 14 years of hell

One phone call, 14 years of hell

SINGAPORE - An innocent chat with a woman in 2000 turned the next 14 years of one man's life into a living hell.

He is now hoping that a new Bill against harassment will put an end to it.

The woman said she was a real-estate agent. The man, a bachelor, chatted with her for a while.

The next week, she turned up at his doorstep and offered him a lift to work. Then the next, and the next. He accepted her offers each time because, he said, "Why not?"

"It never occurred to me how she knew I would be home at that particular time," the man, now aged 67 and a retiree, told MyPaper.

One day, she kissed him by his front door. They were about to have sex when she asked him to prove that he was free from Aids.

They argued and he "shoved her out the door".

"That was when the trouble started," the man said.

She has stalked him ever since, inundating him with thousands of anonymous phone calls - and even contacting his new female friends to slander him.

"I tried changing my number numerous times, but somehow she always got hold of my number," he said.

She once knew his new number even before it was activated.

He tried reporting the case to police, but nothing could be done at that time.

She would call him in the middle of the night and disturb his sleep, and send him e-mail from various addresses.

She even contacted his friends, their wives and his employers.

"She e-mailed them and told them that I was a rapist," he said.

Once, she even called when he was making a police report. He handed the phone over to the officer. Again, she alleged that he was a rapist, but did not make a police report.

She watched him when he went out. "She would call me and say things like 'I see you are in green today'," he said.

It was mental torture, he said, and he gave up hope of avoiding her.

Over the last year or two, the calls and messages have been reduced. But he is already 67 years old and says that the Bill that makes stalking an offence is "long overdue". He has suffered too long.

"If she starts again, I will report her," he said.

jalmsab@sph.com.sg


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