It has been a wild 36 hours and everyone on Jersey is talking about it.
They all experienced a storm they were all warned of – but they could never have imagined the scale.
Wandering down a side street, some 200 metres from the coast, there are crumbled remnants of family homes.
Tiles have been blown off roofs, a playground is a mangled mess of bent lamp posts, twisted fences and collapsed bricks from the neighbouring houses.
We count more than 20 windows of homes that’ve been shattered by flying roof tiles and the gale force winds.
Cars with punctured windscreens line the road as if they’ve been deliberately vandalised. The wind did this.
Image: The smashed windscreen of a car caused by the storm
Roger Iddon has lived here for almost 10 years. His family of five and pet dog are safe but he is in awe of what they survived.
“I thought I was going to die” he says.
He watched Storm Ciaran approach from his bedroom window – and it took seconds to cause damage.
Image: Tiles have been blown off roofs
“(At one point) the wind stopped blowing and it went calm – but then all of a sudden I saw this wall of debris come at the house and it was like the sound of a jet engine,” Roger says.
“(There was) just a loud deafening roar and then the window started to break in front of me and smash.
“I stood away from it and I could hear the whole house shake and the roof lifting, all the cars getting smashed up. It was just a terrifying 30 seconds.
“I thought that’s it, we’re all going to die.”
Roger’s terrifying experience is shared by those on his street. Many have been offered hotel rooms as temporary accommodation but his family and another four have decided to stay in their homes.
Image: Homes have been damaged in Storm Ciaran
The community is rallying together to help those displaced from their homes and to revive streets that are littered in debris.
The Salvation Army has already been helping those caught up in the damage.
Husband and wife Alice and Richard lead the team here.
Read more: Ground saturated like a wet sponge – and another storm is on the way Storm-hit Jersey residents say impact is worse than Great Storm of 1987
“I think as an island we’ve been through a lot,” Alice says.
“I really feel for our island, it’s sad and it’s hard and everyone just wants to feel safe and many people just don’t right now.
“I think we’ve all been affected. I’ve spoken to some people and thankfully their homes and stuff are fine, but they’re really worried about their neighbours.
“I’ve got some people who can’t work today because their place of work is not in a good state.”
Image: Some of the destruction caused by the storm
Richard says they’ve already seen first hand the impact it’s had on people here.
“We know there are people that haven’t been able financially… of buy enough food and stuff for their homes to ride the storm out and so they’re short now,” he adds.
“Our food banks (are) open and we’re deliberately targeting anyone who’s been unable to bulk buy.
“We’re also really aware that a lot of people haven’t got a warm, safe space, or perhaps they feel really anxious about being in their homes after a really difficult night.
“So again, we’re providing a warm, safe space here.”
The need for them and other support groups will only grow as this island rebuilds with fierce determination – something this storm certainly hasn’t hampered.
A “dangerous” man has been found guilty of planning a “terrifying” mass shooting on his former school – and a police headquarters.
Reed Wischhusen had a “macabre interest” in “infamous killers”, including the Dunblane gunman Thomas Hamilton and US mass shootings, and had built firearms and explosives to carry out the assault.
He planned to deliberately target 10 people he felt had wronged him in the attack, as well as shoot dead teachers and attack Avon and Somerset Police headquarters.
The 32-year-old Lidl warehouse worker wrote down his planned mass shootings – which he planned to carry out disguised as a police officer – in a 1,700 document he dubbed “revenge”, Bristol Crown Court heard.
A photo of Wischhusen dressed in a police uniform and holding a gun was later discovered to be the background image on his phone.
Image: Reed Wischhusen will be sentenced on 15 December. Pic: Avon and Somerset Police
After receiving a tip-off, police officers searched his home in Wick St Lawrence, Somerset, in November last year and found he had compiled an armoury of homemade weapons including pistols, sub-machine guns and a shotgun, as well as ammunition, bombs, grenades and poison.
Wischhusen attempted to shoot himself in the head with a concealed pistol in his bathroom during the police search of his home, before running downstairs with the gun to confront armed officers.
Fearing they were going to be killed, the defendant was shot twice by officers and he spent several months recovering in hospital.
Following a 10-day trial, a jury found the defendant guilty of having an explosive substance with intent to endanger life, possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, possessing ammunition with intent to endanger life and possessing a prohibited firearm without a certificate.
He had previously admitted possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, possessing a prohibited firearm and possessing ammunition without a firearm certificate.
Judge Martin Picton had earlier directed the jury to find the defendant guilty of an eighth charge of having an explosive substance.
He adjourned the case until 15 December for sentencing and remanded Wischhusen into custody until then.
Wischhusen told jurors during his trial he had no intention of carrying out his plot, saying: “It was a psychological release and feelings like I am getting back at people.
“It’s why people write their feelings down and tear it up and throw it away – just I forgot to throw it away.”
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But Detective Chief Inspector Simon Dewfall, who led the investigation, said: “Reed Wischhusen’s plans are terrifying. Had he not been caught when he was, the consequences simply do not bear thinking about.
“He claimed his plans were merely fantasy but it’s clear he was actively working towards acting on them, with many of the items he identified as needing for his attacks recovered from his address.
“He had explosive substances and firearms capable of causing lethal harm while, chillingly, he also had Avon and Somerset Police uniform.
“While the weapons he built were crudely constructed, they were extremely dangerous.
“Among those he admitted handing in during a firearms amnesty was a fully operational sub-machine gun, which was loaded with ammunition.
“Incidents of this nature are thankfully few and far between, but when they do happen our officers are ready to respond to them.”
He added: “It is because of their courage and dedication that a dangerous man has been brought to justice.”
When Kerry Daynes discovered the words “Jill Dando” scrawled on her fence, shortly after her cat was found dead in her garden with its neck apparently broken, she believed her life was in danger.
The forensic psychologist has come face-to-face with some of the UK’s most notorious criminals, including Moors murderer Ian Brady and violent inmate Charles Bronson, through her work in maximum security prisons.
But it was after her appearances on television that she says made her the target of a stalker.
After taking part in several crime documentaries, Daynes was contacted online by a stranger offering her the chance to buy domains for websites set up in her name.
She declined the offer but he “immediately turned” and responded with “anger and vitriol”, she says.
He “bombarded” her with messages and comments were posted online accusing her of being a liar and remarking on her appearance in different outfits, she says.
“I knew he had my address, he knew what clothes I was wearing, he knew I lived alone,” Daynes tells Sky News.
“It was a really terrifying time.
“I didn’t have any knowledge of him. I didn’t know who he was.
“He could have been any man who walked past my house or who was behind me in a queue in Tesco’s.
“Every time a man looked at me, I thought: ‘Is that him?’
“I was rushing into my house at night, trying to get my key in the door quickly… and then living with the curtains closed.”
Image: Kerry Daynes would lie awake at night fearing for her life
‘Fixated, unwanted, persistent’
Daynes, from Greater Manchester, says she would lie awake at night thinking was this “somebody who was likely to kill me”.
“What was disconcerting about it was the level of obsession this man had about me,” she adds.
“I’d never spoken to him. As far as I was aware, I’d never set eyes on him.
“Fixated, unwanted, persistent – he was clearly a stalker.”
Daynes says the man’s behaviour meant she stopped appearing on TV or at public speaking events and stayed off social media.
She finally came face-to-face with him in a civil court case, which resulted in the websites in her name being taken down.
But years later, while out walking her dog, she says a parked car suddenly sped up and nearly hit her.
A week later, she received a letter from the man with a demand for more than £26,000. Shortly after that, her cat was found dead.
Image: The name ‘Jill Dando’ was scrawled on Daynes’s fence. Dando was shot dead on her doorstep in 1999
‘Death threat’
“My cat – who had been absolutely fine 10 minutes previously – I found dead, seemingly having had its neck broken, and looking like he’d been thrown over my fence,” Daynes says.
“When I went round to the other side of the fence, somebody had written the words: ‘Jill Dando’.”
Daynes believes the mention of Dando – the TV presenter who was shot dead outside her London home in 1999, in a murder that remains unsolved – was meant as “a death threat”.
“I walked into the police station and said I want to speak to your specialist officer in stalking,” she says.
Daynes says the man later received a harassment warning from police.
The celebrities targeted by stalkers
Image: Emma Raducanu, Claire Foy and David Beckham have been victims of stalking
On Friday, a stalker will be sentenced for targeting the actress Claire Foy, who played Queen Elizabeth II in Netflix series The Crown.
Foy described the actions of Jason Penrose as “deeply frightening” after he sent more than 1,000 emails in just over a month, knocked on the door of her home and contacted her sister.
It follows a string of high-profile victims of stalking in recent months.
David Beckham said he was “frightened” for his family’s safety after Sharon Bell sent him “threatening” letters and turned up at his daughter’s school.
She was charged with stalking and detained under the Mental Health Act in July last year.
And in February 2022, a stalker who trekked 23 miles to the home of tennis star Emma Raducanu and stole her father’s shoe as a souvenir was handed a five-year restraining order.
The Suzy Lamplugh Trust, which supports victims of stalking, says cases involving celebrities are “by no means the majority”.
About 45% of people who contact the charity’s helpline are being stalked by ex-partners, and a further third have had prior contact with their stalker.
Read more: Singer Billie Eilish asks for restraining order Stalker terrorised 121 victims after making ‘rape list’
Official figures show there were more than 718,000 stalking and harassment offences in England and Wales in the year to June 2022 – a 45% rise compared with the year ending March 2020.
However only 5% of stalking cases in England and Wales result in a charge, according to the National Stalking Consortium.
In November, anti-stalking campaigners submitted a super-complaint – which is designed to consider complaints about systemic issues in policing – after arguing that forces are failing to launch effective probes into stalking crimes.
The five ‘types’ of stalker
There are generally five stalker types, according to forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes.
However the behaviour of stalkers is complex and shifts, meaning they won’t necessarily behave within the confines of one “type”, she adds.
1) The rejected stalker – this is the most common and involves someone attempting to reconcile with a former partner or exacting revenge for perceived rejection. Rejected stalkers can become violent when stalking does not produce their desired outcome.
2) The incompetent suitor – this refers to stalkers who target strangers or acquaintances with the aim of sexual encounters. Action Against Stalking says some people think the term “incompetent suitor” minimises criminal behaviour that is often born out of an attitude of entitlement.
3) The erotomanic or intimacy-seeking stalker – this is fuelled by stalkers’ delusional beliefs that they are already in an intense relationship with the victim. It often involves targeting celebrities or public figures.
4) The resentful stalker – this is motivated by anger where the stalker is convinced they have been mistreated or humiliated by someone, even having had little contact with them. The stalking is vindictive and designed to cause distress or damage to the victim’s reputation.
5) The predatory stalker – this is where stalking is part of a violent or sexual offence pattern. It can involve targeting strangers, with stalkers following victims, watching them and collecting information on them.
Why are celebrities targeted?
Daynes says the most common type of stalker is “the rejected stalker” and most people will know those targeting them.
“Stalking is a pretty gendered crime – more often than not, it is men who stalk their female ex-partners, although that’s not to say you don’t have female stalkers,” she says.
“What we find is that those who stalk people in the public eye, they tend to have low-level mental health problems, they tend to be unemployed, or under-employed, and they’re struggling with various difficulties in their lives.
“I think it’s easy for them to become obsessed with someone they don’t know, because they turn to fantasy to deal with that.
“For people who are inclined to fantasise a relationship with somebody they’ve never met, the fact they’re able to view lots of photographs of them on Instagram or they’re able to look into their home on TikTok videos, it all adds to that faux intimacy.”
Ex-newsreader tells of ‘psychological rape’
Image: Alexis Bowater was stalked while working as a newsreader. PIc: ITV Westcountry/Home Office
Former newsreader Alexis Bowater, who was the victim of stalking, described the crime as “psychological rape”.
She was working as a presenter on ITV Westcountry when she was bombarded with emails from stalker Alexander Reeve, who made threats against her and her then-unborn child and falsely claimed a bomb had been placed in the studios.
“It’s barbaric, isn’t it, for a human being to want to torture a pregnant woman,” Bowater tells Sky News.
“I had a Home Office-approved alarm installed in my home and we were linked up to the local police station.
“It was a race against time at that point between them getting him and him getting us.”
Image: Bowater was awarded an OBE for her campaign work
Reeves was jailed in 2009 for four years but Bowater, who received an OBE for her work to combat violence against women and girls, believes stalking is still “not taken seriously”.
“The sentences are not long enough and not enough people are prosecuted for it,” she says.
“This is a horrific psychological crime which destroys lives.
“When I first start campaigning 10 years ago, people were still making jokes about stalkers. Thank heavens that’s not happening now.”
The private investigator hunting stalkers
Laura Lyons set up a private investigation agency after she was the victim of stalking herself.
Her company – Are They Safe – helps victims of online stalking identify the perpetrators and receives “at least 30 calls” every week about this form of crime.
“It’s a huge, huge problem,” Ms Lyons tells Sky News.
“The landscape of stalking has changed significantly since online communications.
“A lot of the time, until (the stalker) is outside their house, victims don’t know who the stalker is online.
“Sadly, online provides stalkers with the weaponry to stalk anonymously who they want, when they want.
“We’re seeing now that 99% of stalking cases start online.”
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Social media makes it ‘easy’ for stalkers to hide
Ms Lyons says she works with “a lot of people in the public eye” who are victims of stalking.
“They have to have active social media,” she adds. “You would be hard-pushed to find a presenter with a closed social profile.”
Ms Lyons says stalkers are using virtual private networks (VPNs) to prevent authorities finding them; sending spyware to victims’ emails; hacking into CCTV cameras and using Apple Air Tags to track victims.
She adds that it is also “easy” for stalkers to set up fake profiles on social media sites and hide their information.
“There are so many tools for stalkers to use,” she says.
“It’s so easy for stalkers to remain anonymous and hidden. It’s very difficult for the police.”
