SOCIAL media is giving stalkers an easy tool to terrorise their victims, a leading domestic violence service in Swindon has said.

Hometruths, a domestic violence support service on Commercial Road, offers a specialist Survivors of Stalking group to help victims.

Director Kim Swinden told the Advertiser social media platforms provided an easy and less detectable route for perpetrators.

She said: "I think it has made it a lot easier. Where as a stalker would have had to make a lot more effort and maybe knock on someone's door, now you just ping a message through social media and then it's harder to detect, if it's a message, things like Snapchat can disappear or be deleted."

Last week was National Stalking Awareness week, supported by Wiltshire Police, to reveal the realities of being a victim and how to respond to low-level incidents which build into more serious crimes.

According to Kim the majority of female victims are stalked by a current or ex-partner.

Often it can be up to 100 incidents before victims finally seek help, who suffer serious side effects such as PTSD as a result.

Kim added: "It creates unbelievable fear and people start to shut their lives down. I can think of one women we're supporting at the moment who got sent a message to her through a third party.

"She now doesn't go out the door she's changed all her social media.

"People feel very alone with it, and they try and deal with it by cutting themselves off.

"Because the incidents can be minor, it's really hard to pin it down and it's hard for other people to see as well, but it has a real impact on the victim.

"Some of the things that happen might not even be a criminal offence. It's the only crime where you look at the pattern rather than the incidents.

"The longer someone can stalk someone the bigger the power they feel they have over that persons life."

The National Stalking Helpline from Suzy Lamplugh Trust is 0808 802 0300.