A shocking investigation has laid bare how perpetrators of domestic abuse and stalking are using private investigators to inflict further harm on their victims, exploiting a system with glaring gaps in regulation and accountability.
The Unseen Threat of Proxied Abuse
The Guardian's recent report, published on 11 January, revealed the disturbing practice where abusers outsource the tracking and surveillance of their victims to private investigators. Noor Da Silva, deputy safeguarding lead at the University of Northampton and manager of a sexual and domestic abuse service, responded with a powerful letter highlighting the severe implications.
Da Silva emphasised that stalking is not a peripheral concern but one of the clearest predictors of intimate partner homicide. She stated that victim-survivors who report stalking behaviours are rarely paranoid; they are accurately identifying a threat of imminent danger.
Safety Measures Rendered Useless
Victim-survivors often take extreme measures to escape their abusers, including changing their names, abandoning careers, moving across the country, and fleeing into refuges to live anonymously. Yet these life-altering steps can be completely undone if an unregulated investigator is paid to find them.
Da Silva expressed horror that in 2026, individuals at the highest risk of serious injury or death, who are hidden in refuges for their safety, can be located simply because someone with no licence, oversight, or specialist training was willing to accept a perpetrator's payment.
A Crisis of Accountability, Not Expertise
The most alarming statistic from the investigation is that 64% of private investigators taking on such work are former police officers. These are individuals trained to protect victims of crime. This fact reveals the core issue is not a lack of expertise but a profound lack of accountability. Skills honed for safeguarding are being repurposed to help perpetrators evade justice.
Da Silva calls for immediate and robust reforms to close this dangerous loophole. Her demands include:
- A statutory ban on investigators accepting cases involving the physical surveillance of a current or former partner.
- A legal duty to decline any instructions that show the hallmarks of domestic abuse or stalking.
- Mandatory training in domestic abuse, stalking, and harmful practices like forced marriage and so-called 'honour'-based abuse as a strict condition of practice.
Without these critical changes, the private investigation industry remains a readily available tool for abusers, undermining the entire safeguarding ecosystem and leaving victims with nowhere left to hide.
