'This could have ended so badly': Chloe Koyce speaks out following her stalker's sentencing
Influencer Chloe Koyce was followed into the hotel she was staying at after a night out in Dublin in March last year. Picture: Chloe Koyce/Instagram.
Influencer Chloe Koyce has been praised online for using her voice to help other women after a terrifying experience at a Dublin hotel which “could have ended so badly”.
Koyce was followed into the hotel she was staying at after a night out in the city in March last year by Denis Morris, who got into the lift with her, carrying a belt.
Morris, who pleaded guilty to stalking Koyce, was spared jail earlier this month and given a suspended six-month sentence.
Morris first followed Koyce into her hotel, then got into the lift behind her and took out a belt.
When she arrived at her floor, he followed her down the corridor towards her bedroom before walking in front of her.
Koyce’s mother, who was in the hotel room at the time, answered the door when her daughter knocked, which Koyce believes is the reason Morris left.
Speaking following the court’s ruling, Koyce told Ireland AM’s Muireann O’Connell that she believes her statement to Morris’s family “meant nothing” to them.
“Even with his family and everyone in court, you could just tell that what I was saying just meant nothing,” she said in a sit-down interview with O’Connell.
“He just kept his eyes closed the whole time, which I just thought was very disrespectful,” she continued, saying that the only acknowledgement she needed was knowing that he was able to hear what she had to say in her victim impact statement.
“I'm just happy that he has ears and he's able to hear everything that I was able to say, you don't have to look at me for that,” she said.
Speaking about the events that unfolded that night, she explained that she and some friends were in Dublin for an event, which she had been looking forward to.
“Whenever I go to Dublin, it's always exciting. It's always an event. It's always fun. So I'm always looking forward to it,” she said.
After the event, she and her friends went to Coppers for a drink before saying their goodbyes and returning to her hotel, where she was staying with her mother.
“We had left Coppers and headed straight to my hotel, which was literally right across the road. And that's when I was followed. Lauren was waiting at her taxi, and she was waiting for me to get to the hotel door,” she explained.
“So I was at the hotel door, and the door was quite heavy, so I remember pushing it through, and I heard somebody come in behind me, and only because I had seen this boy standing so close to me outside Coppers, I realised, okay, maybe he's not supposed to be here at all, because it just didn't seem like he was actually staying in this hotel.”
She explained that there was nobody at reception, so she headed for the lift and said that as the doors were about to close, this person, who was later found to be Denis Morris, slipped through.
“I knew then, being in the lift, there was no cameras. I couldn't ring my mom, because you don't have reception in a lift. So I was just like, in panic mode,” she said.
“So he was standing directly across from me, and I could see there was a belt in his hand. Now, I don't know… was the belt taken off outside Coppers? Was it on the way to the hotel? Was it in the lift?... I had actually asked him what floor he was staying on, and he wouldn't reply to me. So I was like, okay, surely if you're staying at the hotel, you would tell me where you're going.
“So I pressed my floor. I was thinking to myself, I should have gotten out, but I know you can't be thinking of these things. So I had taken a step forward when I knew the floor was coming up, and I actually just pressed record on my phone. I just folded my arms, mainly just to record any sound that might have happened, because I just thought to myself, something bad's gonna happen, I need to get out of this lift."
Explaining that he was standing behind her, belt in hand, and had made a loop with the belt, she said: “Even thinking about it still, like, gives me the shakes.”
Koyce said that when she was walking towards her room, Morris followed her, so she stopped briefly, and he then walked in front of her.
When she reached her room, she knocked until her mother answered, and that’s when she said he ran away.
She rang reception to explain the situation, and said they replied that they had seen her on the cameras and assumed the person with her was her boyfriend.
“At that point, I was like you can't presume these things like this could have ended so badly if my mom wasn't in that room because he was waiting for me to open the door, and when he had heard my mom, that's when he ran,” she said.
She spoke of how much the incident had affected her and told other women watching the interview always to trust their instincts.
“If you feel intimidated, if somebody is making you feel any way, just please report it, and do not keep it to yourself, that is the main thing. And just use your voice, because we all have voices to use. And just be careful with your friends. Make sure that you're texting each other,” she said.
Koyce received a wave of praise and support online following the interview, describing her as an amazing and brave woman.
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