Stalking should be made an offence, say MPs

An independent inquiry into the reform of stalking laws is calling for key changes to training and risk assessment, as well as the treatment and sentencing of stalkers.

The parliamentary inquiry into stalking law reform was set up as part of the government’s ongoing review into harassment legislation. Stalking is currently dealt with under harrassment legislation, but MPs and peers say stalking needs to be a specific offence in itself for it to be properly dealt with in the criminal justice system.

While a new law is needed, MPs and peers warned that this would not be enough to protect victims and “fundamental reform” of the system is needed.

According to figures from the British Crime Survey, there may be 120,000 instances of stalking every year in England and Wales, but only 2 per cent of cases result in convictions.

The recommendations come days after a man who stalked his ex-girlfriend on Facebook before stabbing her to death was jailed for life after being found guilty of murder.

Clifford Mills, 49, attacked Lorna Smith after he inviting her to his Brixton flat in February last year. He denied murder, claiming that he was suffering a mental abnormality at the time, but an Old Bailey jury found him guilty last Friday after just 90 minutes of deliberation.

The inquiry heard that around 20 stalkers a year are jailed for longer than 12 months for putting a victim in fear of violence. Some were behind bars for just days while others are sentenced to community orders and “inappropriate” domestic violence courses.

Stalking is a crime which shatters lives – but for too long it has remained a hidden crime which victims have been reluctant to report, fearing that they wouldn’t be taken seriously. Elfyn Llwyd, inquiry chairman

The inquiry recommends that anyone who breaches a restraining order should face jail and that bail should be refused to anyone charged with a serious violent or sexual offence, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Among the inquiry’s 30 recommendations were calls for a stalker’s previous offences to be taken into account by judges and for restrictions to be placed on offenders’ use of phones, IT and letters once they are behind bars.

Judges in crown courts should also have the power to suspend the parental responsibilities of anyone convicted of “serious” stalking-related offences in a bid to stop them appealing for contact through the family courts, it said.

Also last week Claire Waxman was awarded £3,500 damages after the High Court ruled the state failed to protect her when charges against her stalker were dropped.

Ms Waxman, who runs a business in Willesden Green, north west London, complained of “serious and persistent” harassment over the course of eight years by freelance television producer Elliot Fogel, aged 36.

Reform of law is ‘murder prevention’

Lord Justice Moore-Bick said Ms Waxman was entitled to damages because of the “alarm and distress caused by the failure of the Criminal Prosecution Service to pursue the prosecution”.

Elfyn Llwyd, the inquiry chairman, said: “Stalking is a crime which shatters lives – but for too long it has remained a hidden crime which victims have been reluctant to report, fearing that they wouldn’t be taken seriously.”

Current legislation was “clearly not doing enough to protect victims”, he added.

Laura Richards, of Protection Against Stalking and an adviser to the inquiry, said: “It is time for change and to recognise the physical and psychological harm and terror that stalking causes.

“This is about murder prevention.”