The victim of a serial stalker has been awarded compensation after the High Court ruled the Crown Prosecution Service had failed to protect her.
Claire Waxman will receive £3,500 in damages after the CPS dropped a charge against Elliot Fogel, who has repeatedly been jailed for harassing her and her family.
The case followed 37-year-old Fogel’s attempt to launch a civil case against Ms Waxman last year, claiming she had conducted a "hate campaign" against him.
He was subsequently charged with breaching his life-time restraining order after gathering information about her to build his case. But the CPS later dropped the charge because it said the order could not be used to bar him from launching civil actions, and that his human rights would be breached if he were denied such an opportunity.
At a hearing last November, Ms Waxman’s lawyers told the High Court that the failure to prosecute Fogel had presented stalkers with the opportunity to use civil proceedings to harass their victims
In his judgment, released today, Lord Justice Moore-Bick said: “In the light of the history of the matter and the serious effects of Mr Fogel’s behaviour towards Ms Waxman, the state owed her a duty to take proper measures to protect her and was in breach of its duty in failing to pursue the prosecution.”
Last week Fogel was jailed for two years for a separate breach of the restraining order.
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