Serial stalker brings misery to lives of victims

Glen Goldberg

For 18 years serial stalker Glen Dallas Goldberg has ravaged the lives of women with his fixated, threatening attention.

The Auckland man once described as a social terrorist has made life a misery for at least 10 women, although the full list of his victims is almost certainly higher.

This week he was jailed for six years, but the judge said he would almost certainly offend again, pointing to a record of 191 previous convictions, including 37 related to "duplicitous, cunning and manipulative harassment" and 29 for breach of protection orders.

He has appeared in court under nine different names and in one case he continued to pursue a victim from behind prison bars.

The 34-year-old Goldberg's first known victim was a 16-year-old he bumped into on a bus. He discovered her name from her bus pass and managed to track down her address to pursue her.

His obsession made her life a misery as she was bombarded with letters and phone calls. She was watched, photographed and followed.

Nothing would shift Goldberg's obsession. At the time he told a probation officer he did not believe the 16-year-old did not want him. He said he might believe it if the girl told him to his face, and even then he would check up every six months.

This was the pattern to be repeated over and over again.

Goldberg added new weapons to his armoury of psychological intimidation.

As well as the phone calls and the hanging around his victims' homes - sometimes using associates or private detectives to conduct the surveillance - he would forge documents and start private prosecutions against women when they rebuffed him.

In one case the Crown described this as an abuse of the judicial process as a means to harass and harry.

So relentless was his pursuit that some of his victims left their homes to escape, but Goldberg was adept at tracking them down.

One woman - who believed Goldberg had been under her house and had also fossicked through her rubbish - described in 1998 how she and her boyfriend moved in the dead of night to escape Goldberg's surveillance, but he still managed to track them down. It was "like living in a nightmare", she said.

Another woman described Goldberg's surveillance as "like being a prisoner in my own home".

One victim received more than 130 telephone calls from Goldberg as well as numerous letters. He also made untrue allegations about her to her employer and harassed her family and friends.

He photographed her with a telephoto lens at home, on the way to and from work, and even in Burger King. He would park near her parents' house, watching.

When he became fixated on a new victim he would go to remarkable lengths to try to start a relationship.

He once pretended to be a detective in an attempt to befriend a television Blind Date contestant.

When he met one woman for the first time in an Auckland nightclub he claimed to be the reserve bowman for Team New Zealand's successful America's Cup defence. When this relationship ended the woman became another of his stalking targets.

He was no glamorous yachtsman but has worked as a roofer, tyre fitter, panel beater, driver and painter. He has lived in various Auckland suburbs including New Lynn, Titirangi, Glen Eden, Henderson and Ponsonby.

He was raised in a foster home, having had minimal contact with his birth parents.

Goldberg has appeared in court on many occasions on stalking-related charges. He has been given custodial sentences which have become heavier as his criminal record built up and prosecutors denounced his chilling behaviour.

This week the punishment went up another notch as Justice John Laurenson sent him away for six years with a minimum of 44 months behind bars.

Goldberg had been found guilty on four counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice and five of breaching a protection order.

These charges are not usually treated as the most serious in the criminal calendar and scores of breaches of protection order cases end with minimal punishment. But Goldberg's record elevated them to another level.

The circumstances of the latest case were a mirror of his previous offending. The convictions for attempting to pervert the course of justice and breaching a protection order arose while Goldberg was on remand in jail awaiting trial on a sexual violation charge.

(The jury was hung twice on the sex offence and further prosecution was stayed by the Solicitor-General.)

He wrote to a witness offering her money to perjure herself. More disturbingly, he said she needed to be "very careful" and he would protect her and look after her when, in fact, the woman hardly knew him at all.

He also wrote letters to himself, purportedly from the rape complainant, trying to cast the complainant in a bad light. The letters supposedly threatened that Goldberg would be raped in the prison shower by friends of the complainant.

Goldberg also wrote to the woman in his own name in breach of a protection order she took out against him.

The Crown maintained that although on the face of it those letters were relatively benign, they were designed to upset and intimidate.

"The contents of all the letters quite clearly show the prisoner's threatening and manipulative nature, and it is particularly disturbing, given his past conduct of fixation," prosecutor Steve Haszard told the judge.

Haszard said the similarities with previous offending included producing false documents for court, an absolute contempt for court orders and trying to get people he did not like into trouble.

The judge noted that the two women in the current case, aged 16 and 17, were severely affected and had made changes in their lives to protect themselves from Goldberg.

One lost her job after Goldberg sent her employer a letter containing untrue allegations about her.

The letters to this young woman were particularly cruel, given her age, vulnerability and the fact that she was pregnant, said the judge.

Laurenson said the protection of the public was his paramount concern and Goldberg, devious and manipulative, was at high risk of re-offending. "You have in the past been a perpetrator of large-scale, continuing and very damaging criminal behaviour, particularly towards women."

"As things stand at the moment, judging by your past performance, there is almost a certainty you will re-offend in the future."

The judge said Goldberg's crimes were "clearly a continuation of a long-standing pattern of criminal behaviour".

Goldberg was a "uniquely dishonest and manipulative person" who had caused enormous distress to many vulnerable people.

He showed a high degree of deviousness and a determination to manipulate situations to his advantage, with the "quite sinister ability and willingness to cause the utmost distress to anyone who falls foul of your perception of events as they affect you".

Psychiatrist Dr Staffan Heed said Goldberg was at high risk of re-offending in relation to "intrusive and unwanted behaviour towards women".

Goldberg has apparently had six medium-term relationships lasting six to 12 months, always involving younger women. According to a psychology report, he has never been involved in an intimate relationship that did not end in legal action of some kind.

In a report to the court, psychologist Dr Renate Bellve-Wack said Goldberg's offending had been persistent, versatile and opportunistic.

It was also remarkably consistent over 18 years.

His victims were young women he happened to encounter in public and decided to pursue, as well as women with whom he had short relationships.

The psychology report said that real or perceived rejection would lead to surveillance - either by himself, an associate or a private detective - and harassment that often culminated in threats of physical harm or threats of kidnapping.

Goldberg was skilful in tracking women down, even impersonating a police officer to do so.

He was also able to do it from behind bars to impress on his victim that "she could not escape from him".

The psychologist said Goldberg's record reflected 10 cases, but because of non-reporting the number was probably higher.

Bellve-Wack said Goldberg showed no empathy or understanding for his victims and the suffering he had caused them.

"It appears that for Mr Goldberg the offending in question has provided a way for feeling powerful and in control, an avenue for expressing his anger and addressing the rejections he has suffered."

In 1998 psychiatrist Dr Steve Allnutt said Goldberg presented as a "particularly vindictive kind of individual" and was a serious risk to his victims.

"He is driven by a desire to terrorise them ... " he said.

"In a sense, he could be termed a social terrorist."

Celebrities: anyone can be a victim

The popular image of a stalker is of someone obsessed with celebrities, and rarely a week goes by without another report of a star being pursued. This week, Sheryl Crow watched an obsessed fan who went backstage to propose to her being freed. Catherine Zeta Jones will soon face Dawnette Knight, her alleged stalker, in court, and an alleged pursuer of Mel Gibson appears in court this month.

Other stars to face unwelcome attention include George Michael, Cher, Madonna, David Bowie and even Steven Spielberg.

But in reality anyone can become a victim. A study published this week suggests that 900,000 adults are stalked in Britain every year and around 20 per cent of women will be stalked at some time.

Accidental eye contact at the supermarket or a smile at the petrol station can set a stalker off into thinking someone is in love with them.

The behaviour is wide-ranging but is generally repeated attention foisted on another individual who doesn't want a bar of it, to the point the victim becomes uneasy or terrified.

Some stalkers use the phone, others emails, a few hide in bushes. They used to write letters, but today some stalk via the internet.

Many stalkers are people who have had a relationship with their victim and cannot accept it is over. Others have never met their victim before. Auckland University psychologist Dr Ian Lambie says the average stalker is likely to have trouble forming appropriate relationships.

Others may be happily married but with a fantasy world which isn't matched by the real world.

"His thinking may have been distorted so much he engages in behaviour that at one level meets his fantasy world and keeps him excited and happy. It is quite potentially addictive."

Some have not had much love or attention, Lambie says.

If you catch their eye you might think you are just being polite, but they think "no one has ever shown this interest in me before".

An anti-stalking website (www.anti-stalking.com) says victims may unwittingly encourage a stalker by "letting them down easy".

This is not a good idea, says the site: "A victim should say 'no' once. And then, never say anything to him again."

Another Auckland University psychologist, Dr Nikki Harre, says often non-verbal cues are ambiguous and can be misinterpreted. Some people are better at interpreting cues than others, but most people do not give them much credence.

"If you're in a supermarket and somebody glances at you, you may think for a second it's a come-on but you drop it immediately and don't give it any airtime."

No one knows how many stalkers are out there and Lambie believes many cases aren't reported.

So, should we not make eye contact?

Lambie says no. The chance of meeting a stalker is still remote, so be pleasant. Just be aware they do exist, he says.