Threatened girls must be taken seriously

Arsema Dawit, 15, stabbed to death in Waterloo, is not just another teen killing to add to those in London already this year. Her case typifies a different but equally alarming trend: poor policing which fails to protect girls and women (and a small number of men) who fear for their lives.

These victims are followed and threatened by stalkers, criminals, family bullies and obsessives, yet too often nothing is done until it is too late - until, that is, a real crime has been committed, when the threat materialises and there is blood to show for it.

The women in the family tried, without success, to keep Arsema's infatuated stalker away. Altercations between him and the child were witnessed by neighbours. In April, the girl and her mother, Tsehay, reported the matter to the police but the assailant was still able to keep harassing Arsema and allegedly to assault her. A full 12 days later, officers tried to interview Arsema in school, where she appears to have found the attention uncomfortable. That was it. And it was not good enough.

We have seen other, similar failures in the police response to such cases. Clare Bernal, 22, was fatally shot in 2005 in Harvey Nichols by her former boyfriend, Michael Pech. He had been harassing her; she had asked for - and didn't get - police protection. So she died, needlessly.

Then there was Banaz Mahmood, 20, who knew she would be killed by the men in her Kurdish family who hated her westernised ways. She went to the police four times and they ignored her pleas. Her father organised for her to be raped, tortured and murdered. Numerous other such victims of sick "honour" - and I personally know some - are similarly left to their fate. I fear they will join the other victims before long.

Yet we have the 1997 Protection from Harassment Act and only two years ago special guidance was issued on pre-emptive measures to stop men hell-bent on tormenting girls and women they have marked out. The police either don't understand their own powers or refuse to take terrorised women seriously.

Now, as ever, an inquiry will follow this latest death. There is no real need for it: we know more or less what happened. The police didn't take a frightened girl seriously; they cocked up. But perhaps some sackings would ensure that these heinous crimes are handled more tenaciously and professionally by the Met in the future.