Setting The Standard For Stalkers

Wow. There is an aerobics instructor in Winnipeg who regrets the day she said "hello" to Alanna Phizacklea, who attended the gym where the victim taught. Apparently, that "hello" was all it took, because there was nothing else that transpired between the two of them. Since that day, though, Phizacklea has been stalking her relentlessly. It started in June 1999 when Phizacklea showed up at the victim's house. Per the Judge, "What followed ... were phone calls in the middle of the night, letters, seemingly chance encounters everywhere." Here's Winnipeg Free Press reporter Mike McIntyre's chronology (his article can be read here):

Police were finally called in January 2000 when Phizacklea went to the victim's home and began pounding on her door for several minutes. She was arrested and pleaded guilty the following month to criminal harassment. Phizacklea was given a suspended sentence and two years of probation with an order to stay away from the victim.

Phizacklea was re-arrested in 2002 after making dozens of angry phone calls to the woman. At one point, she even dropped off an envelope with $1,000.

She pleaded guilty in January 2003 and was given time in custody of 25 days followed by probation. A psychiatric report described Phizacklea as having "periodic obsessive ruminations" about the victim.

A third arrest followed later that year when Phizacklea repeatedly breached her probation by confronting the victim at various locales, including a grocery store where she made an obscene gesture and uttered a threat.

Phizacklea was sentenced in August 2004 and told court she planned to get away from her victim by moving to Calgary. She was given time in custody of 16 days plus a six-month conditional sentence.

Phizacklea was arrested in December 2004 for breaching her conditional sentence by following the victim in a vehicle. She was allowed to eventually resume her conditional sentence.

Phizacklea was arrested a fifth time in August 2006 for breaching her probation orders by confronting the victim in a grocery store, writing her letters and making phone calls. Phizacklea was given the equivalent of six months in jail, plus probation.

She was released from custody in early November - and immediately went after the victim in a terrifying incident outside a city bank. Phizacklea forced her way into the woman's car, grabbed her arm and began speaking of her ruined life, inability to find a job and even told the victim, "I forgive you." She only let her go when the woman promised not to call police. She did, and Phizacklea was arrested for a sixth time and has been in custody since last Nov. 6.

So what did the Judge do this time? He sentenced her to 26 months in jail. Hopefully they'll monitor her outgoing mail.