TV researcher, 24, forced to unmask Pakistani pervert caller who tormented her for 18 months herself after police ignored pleas for help
A victim of dirty phone calls condemned police today after she was forced to turn DIY detective to unmask her tormentor when officers refused to help her.
TV researcher Sophie Daysh, 24, had been bombarded with silent or filthy messages for 18 months, including voicemails in which the caller was 'groaning in a sexual way and calling her by her nickname, Casper.
But despite calling the Metropolitan force for help, officers said they were powerless to act as the caller had withheld their number.
As the calls continued Miss Daysh, from London, discovered a new online company, ambushcall.co.uk, which unmasks nuisance callers, and got them to help her instead.
The service, which launched in May last year, uses software to uncover nuisance callers. If a client receives a call from a blocked number, the signal goes straight to ambushcall's servers. There, the number is uncovered and then sent to the client via text or e-mail.
Miss Daysh alerted the company when she got another nuisance call and they emailed her back with the culprit's number.
It emerged the culprit married father-of-two Abdul Rafiq, 43, an office worker had obtained her mobile phone number when he showed her around a flat in Manchester when she was househunting in the city.
Today, as Rafiq was ordered to pay Miss Daysh £500 compensation, prosecutors at Manchester magistrates' court accused the Met of doing her a 'great disservice.'
In a statement Miss Daysh said: 'This whole affair has had a great impact on my life for all the wrong reasons. This has been very frightening — and I have been woken up, kept awake and often left tired for work.
She added: 'I was frustrated that the police were unable to help me, and I just couldn't deal with it any more. It had been happening for a long time.
'I was really annoyed when the police said there was nothing they could do. So I paid for a subscription to this site to try to sort it out for myself.
'I had been flat-hunting and the man got my number after he showed me around a flat. I had met him for about five minutes. I was shocked that someone would do this.'
'The calls would vary. Some would be totally silent, no matter how long I stayed on the phone. Other times there would be heavy breathing, which was pretty grim.
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'Something I found really scary was that he had found out my nickname was Casper, and an automated voice was used to say disturbing messages such as: "Play with me Casper".
'I also had voicemails left with the same sorts of messages. It was really frightening.'
Earlier the court heard how Miss Daysh began getting calls in May last year whilst living at properties in London and then at Didsbury, Manchester. She got 20 to 40 mainly silent calls during unsociable hours.
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TV researcher, 24, forced to unmask pervert caller who tormented her for 18 months herself after police ignored pleas for help | Mail Online
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