More than 1,500 restraining order applications have been made at District Court level in the 13 months since provisions to protect victims of stalking came into effect.
The mechanism – part five of the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act – enables victims to apply to the District Court for a civil order prohibiting the alleged perpetrator from engaging in a broad range of unwanted stalking-type behaviour.
Examples include following or impersonating someone and repeated unwanted contact.
Some similar protection orders were available under the Domestic Violence Act in cases where the alleged stalker was the victim’s current or former partner or among certain family members.
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The current fee to make a civil restraining order application is €80. A judge may decide that either the applicant or respondent has to pay the costs of the case.
Following campaigning from Una Ring and Eve McDowell – two women who endured similar stalking ordeals – a stand-alone criminal offence of stalking, with a maximum sentence of 10 years, was introduced in 2023. Existing harassment laws were also widened.
The new mechanism came into force on September 2nd of last year, enabling victims who did not have an intimate or familial relationship with their stalker to apply to the District Court for a civil restraining order.
In the period to September of this year, 1,545 applications were made, 506 of which resulted in restraining orders being granted, the Courts Service said.
A further 392 ex parte orders were granted, in cases where there was an immediate threat to safety and welfare. An ex parte order is a temporary court order used in urgent situations where immediate action is required.
Dr Catherine O’Sullivan, an expert in criminal law and feminist legal theory, says the difference between stalking and harassment lies in “forced intimacy or forced emotional connection between the perpetrator and the victim for stalking”.
“It is more obsessive and fixed,” she said.
[ Una Ring: ‘The contents of the letter were terrifying’Opens in new window ]
Dr O’Sullivan co-authored a study published by University College Cork in 2023 that found more than half of 892 survey respondents identified their stalker as their partner or ex-partner.
Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of respondents said their stalker was an acquaintance, while 29 per cent said the person was a stranger.
The digital landscape poses an increasing risk, said Dr O’Sullivan, with technology a means of facilitating stalking behaviour.
“The availability of social media tools has also meant that people seem to be more comfortable making jokes around stalking, minimising the seriousness of this particular offence,” she said.
