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Artist News Legal
CPS apologises to Girls Aloud’s Nicola Roberts over stalking case
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 24 July 2018
The Crown Prosecution Service has apologised to Girls Aloud member Nicola Roberts for failing to prosecute an ex-boyfriend accused of stalking her despite a restraining order.
Carl Davies was initially convicted of stalking the singer in 2017. He had first started sending threatening messages via social media following the couple’s split back in 2008. The conviction came with a suspended sentence and a lifetime restraining order banning Davies from interacting with Roberts in anyway.
He was subsequently charged with breaching that restraining order by connecting with the singer anew via social media, but the CPS decided not to prosecute.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Roberts said that Davies had followed her on Instagram to let her know that, despite the restraining order, “he was still watching” her. She said the experience had left her frightened to leave the house or keep her window open at night.
The new case against Davies was dropped because the CPS did not feel there was a decent prospect of getting a conviction. Instead, the breadth of the restraining order was extended.
But in a new statement, the CPS has now said: “We accept our decision not to prosecute the breach of the order was incorrect. We have written to Ms Roberts to apologise and have taken steps to ensure lessons are learned from the case”.
It went on: “We fully appreciate the impact stalking and harassment has on victims and we take prosecuting these cases extremely seriously. We regularly update our legal guidance to keep up with changes in technology, including social media platforms”.
