At least 11 restraining order applications were made at District Court level in the first 10 days of the operation of new provisions to protect victims of stalking.
Although a full national picture is yet to emerge, the Courts Service could point to six civil order applications in Dublin, two in Limerick and one in each of Clare, Mayo and Galway.
The new legal mechanism – part 5 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 stalking-type behaviour.
Some similar protection orders were already available under the Domestic Violence Act where the alleged stalker was the victim’s current or former partner or among certain family members.
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The new facility, which came into force earlier this month, fills a gap for victims who did not have an intimate or particular familial relationship with their stalker, said Dola Twomey, who leads a project called Stalking in Ireland.
“It is a huge step forward,” she said, adding that these victims have until now effectively had to wait for the situation to seriously escalate.
Stalking in Ireland, which is linked to the Cork Sexual Violence Centre, provides text and email information services to stalking victims throughout the country. Twomey said there are many people in contact with the organisation who have been waiting for the civil order remedy to take effect.
The scheme has the potential to be a “total game-changer” for stalking in Ireland, but time will tell how effectively it operates, she said, adding that raising public awareness about its existence is key.
Most stalkers are “cowards”, Twomey added, so even the existence of specific stalking laws that have teeth might encourage some of them to “go back into the woodwork”.
Like protection orders under the Domestic Violence Act, these “anti-stalking” orders require a lower standard of proof than is needed to secure a criminal conviction, which requires proof “beyond all reasonable doubt”.
The order is designed to allow for earlier intervention and the District Court judge must be satisfied there are “reasonable grounds” for believing the alleged perpetrator has engaged in “relevant conduct” and that making the order is proportionate and necessary to protect the applicant’s safety and welfare.
The unwanted conduct may include following, watching, monitoring, pestering or impersonating a person, the Act says. It can also take the form of communication with or about them, purporting to communicate on their behalf or disclosing private information.
The judge can prohibit the alleged perpetrator from engaging in conduct specified by the court or from communicating with the person or going within a certain distance of their home, workplace or educational institution.
Breach of these orders carries a penalty of a fine or imprisonment for up to 12 months.
The Department of Justice said the new civil order system complements the range of criminal orders available after a perpetrator has been convicted of stalking, which became a stand-alone offence last November.
Dublin-based family law solicitor Keith Walsh SC has much experience invoking the protections of the Domestic Violence Act on behalf of clients.
Walsh said the new suite of anti-stalking civil orders, covering a broad range of unwanted behaviours, has the potential to assist and complement the already existing domestic violence remedies for people experiencing stalking-type behaviours from a partner or ex-partner. The protection against disclosure of confidential information could be particularly helpful for these victims, he said.
Previously, the main form of early-intervention protection from some forms of non-family or non-partner harassment would have been to seek a tailored injunction from the “prohibitively expensive” High Court, said Walsh.
“The reality is nobody really ever did that or had the money to do that. Now you can go straight to your local District Court,” he said.
The accessibility and affordability of seeking justice in the District Court – the lowest jurisdiction in the judicial system – is a significant appeal, but Walsh said it is crucial more resources and judges are deployed to ensure the already over-stretched area can cope with increased demand.
A Department of Justice spokesman said the courts introduced new operational arrangements to facilitate hearing these protective order applications.
He said it is “not envisaged” that the volume of applications will have a significant effect on judicial resources but, more generally, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has made proper court resourcing a “priority”. The spokesman noted the Government last year approved the appointment of eight new District Court judges and is assessing a recommendation for a further six to be approved.
A separate stand-alone criminal offence of stalking was introduced and existing harassment laws were widened last November following a campaign spearheaded by Eve McDowell and Una Ring, who were both stalked by men they had not been in relationships with.
McDowell (24) welcomed the introduction of the civil protections, which she said would have been a significant help if available when she was being incessantly stalked and harassed by student Igor Lewandowski over 17 days in May 2019.
She reported his conduct to gardaí but there was no response until he broke into her home armed with a hammer and assaulted her flatmate.
“This was the scariest morning of my life, but I felt a sense of relief because he could be taken away then. It should not have to come to that,” she said.
Lewandowski, from Monasteravin, Co Kildare, was arrested shortly after the break-in and held in custody until, in May 2020, he was sentenced to five years in prison with a further two years suspended.
Now, a civil protection order can give a victim some “autonomy”, as they do not have to wait for gardaí to arrest someone or for the perpetrator’s behaviour to significantly escalate, she said.
“There are a lot of people who have been waiting a long time for this. Anyone stalked by someone they were not in a relationship with has been left vulnerable. The civil protection orders are really key for early intervention and protection,” she said.
Of the 892 respondents to a 2021/2022 survey by University College Cork, more than half (468) said their stalker was their partner or ex-partner, but for 257 respondents the perpetrator was a stranger. Others identified their stalkers as friends, colleagues or acquaintances.
McDowell said it is crucial that gardaí are properly trained in the area of stalking and the operation of the new civil protections, while the public must be made aware of the existence of new protections.
She said: “Having the legislation there is the first step. Now, how do we back that up?”
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