Private investigators must be trained to spot signs of domestic abuse and stalking | Letter

It is horrifying that victims and survivors of abuse can be traced by someone with no licence or training who is willing to take a perpetrator’s money, writes Noor Da Silva

I was grateful to read the Guardian investigation revealing how perpetrators of abuse are using private investigators to further harm by proxy, exposing the unseen threat faced by victims and their supporters (You feel violated’: how stalkers outsource abuse to private investigators, 11 January).

As the manager of a sexual and domestic abuse service, I see the impact of stalking on a monthly basis, not as an adjacent concern but as one of the clearest predictors of intimate partner homicide we have. Victim-survivors who disclose stalking and associated behaviours are rarely paranoid; they are often correctly identifying imminent danger.