Steve Andrews testified Wednesday that Michael David Barrett
posting a nude peephole video of his once-outgoing daughter Erin on the Internet in 2008 has left her "a shell of the person she used to be."
Before Barrett taped Erin Andrews at the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University, his daughter was at the top of her game as the most famous sideline reporter on the planet for ESPN.
Ever since, she's been fearful, anxious and depressed, testified Steve Andrews, a Tampa Bay TV reporter. His daughter is terrified of a tap on her shoulder. She's fearful of crowds — and hangs blankets over her windows.
Steve Andrews visibly choked up while testifying about the emotional toll.
Via the New York Post:
“My daughter has been scared for eight years. Eight years she has been terrified that there’s something else out there. That there’s someone else looking for her.
“She’s depressed,” Steve added. “She cries, she’s full of anxiety, she’s a very, very changed person. She’s not the girl that we used to know.”
He recalled the frantic phone call in July 2009 from Erin, who was sobbing about the videos that had suddenly become public.
“She was just screaming, ‘I’m on the Internet. I’m naked. Everything I’ve worked for is done. We’ve got to get it down. We’ve got to get it down,’ ” she told him. “I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing.”
I would argue that she isn't normal simply because you see her showing up to do her job. Maybe she's a consummate professional and doing her best publicly to make sure her career doesn't suffer. She has made some pretty dumb mistakes and had to read from notes which isn't something she did a lot of before this incident.
She was obviously horrified for that video to be put out publicly. It's no different than finding yourself naked in public and locked out of any secure place. Vulnerability is brutal, particularly for a woman. There is also the stalking aspect. It's scary as hell and life-disrupting to think that you have been followed, watched, recorded. Not a day goes by that you don't wonder if it's happening again. Fear is a consuming emotion and it screws up your life.
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