Harassment and Stalking

Harassment

Harassment is when someone’s actions disrupt your peace, invade your privacy, or make you feel intimidated, frightened, irritated, humiliated, or threatened. This behaviour may be repeated over time or occur as a single, extended incident (such as someone following you for a prolonged period). The person engaging in harassment could be someone you know or a stranger.

Harassment can take many forms, including but not limited to:

• Offensive gestures
• Unwanted physical contact
• Stalking or monitoring
• Vandalism or damage to property/vehicles
• Name-calling or verbal taunting
• Repeated phone calls or voicemails
• Notes or letters
• Littering on your property
• Excessive noise or loud music from neighbours
• Written harassment, such as graffiti, comments on social media (e.g., Tweets, Facebook), YouTube videos, text messages, emails, or other online communications.

Stalking

Stalking, like harassment, involves a pattern of repeated, unwanted, and intrusive behaviour. However, stalking is often marked by an intense obsession or fixation by the stalker on the victim. The stalker may be someone you know or a stranger. Stalking behaviours are often categorized under the acronym F.O.U.R: Fixated, Obsessed, Unwanted, and Repeated.

Stalking can take many forms, including but not limited to:

• Spying on, watching, monitoring, or tracking your movements (whether online, through technology, or in person)
• Making unwanted approaches to you, your family, friends, or colleagues
• Issuing threats to harm you, your loved ones, or themselves in your presence
• Sending unwanted gifts
• Taking photos or recordings of you without your consent
• Making inappropriate or malicious phone calls, sending letters, texts, faxes, WhatsApp messages, emails, or other social media communications
• Filing false legal claims against you

Impact of Harassment and Stalking

The continuous and persistent nature of harassment and stalking can make it particularly difficult to cope with. While any one incident could be regarded as a ‘minor’ event, it is the cumulative impact of enduring these behaviours or incidents that affects most people.

Stalking and harassing behaviour can also escalate to other serious offenses such as assault, sexual violence and the sharing of intimate images without consent.

Sometimes there is no physical evidence that stalking, or harassment has taken place, and the Gardai may find it difficult to take any action even when you tell them what is happening.

If you are the victim of harassment/stalking, you may feel:

• like no one is taking your situation seriously and fearing that something extreme will need to happen before you’re truly believed.
• isolated and unsupported by family or friends who may not grasp the seriousness of what you’re going through.
• your only choice is to move out of your neighbourhood or leave your job.
• anxious about answering phone calls or reading text messages.
• heightened anxiety whenever you leave your home.
• Fear that your property might be damaged while you’re away.
• Worry about the effects of the situation on your children.
• Afraid that if you report each incident to the authorities, you’ll be seen as a nuisance or not believed.
• Worried that reporting the harassment or stalking could escalate the situation and make it worse.
• Trauma that interferes with sleep, harms your physical and/or mental health, and/or disrupts to your everyday life.

What can you do?

• Keep a written record of every incident. Write down the time and place of the incident, with as much detail as possible, and note down any person who saw what happened and who may be a witness in any criminal proceedings.
• Report the crime to the Gardaí. Harassment and stalking, although very similar in nature, are considered separate crimes in Ireland. It is important that you report it and that you make a statement to the Gardaí about what is happening. Every incident should be reported to the Gardaí. Any incident that makes you concerned about your safety should be reported immediately to the Gardaí.
• Keep all texts, voicemails, emails, or screenshots of social media comments, as they will be useful in any investigation that may take place.
• Contact your telephone service provider for advice if the harassment/stalking is by telephone. Each provider has a policy on dealing with the issue. It may be possible to block unwanted inbound communications.
• If the harassment/stalking is via social media, you can report it to the relevant social media organisation. It is possible to block a person from making contact with you on most social media sites.
• Consider installing a camera device on your property to provide evidence of harassment/stalking, and as a deterrent. Low-cost and discrete cameras such as camera doorbells with the ability to record both physical and audio footage are now available.
• Avoid being drawn into a dispute. Do not shout back or retaliate. If you do, it is less likely that any case will succeed against the person who is harassing/stalking you.
•  Apply for a court order.

Victims of “relevant conduct” can apply for an emergency Section 28 Civil Restraining Order through their local District Court. A member of An Garda Síochána can apply for a court order on behalf of a victim, or a victim may apply directly themselves.

“Relevant conduct” for the purpose of the restraining order is defined as:

• following, watching, monitoring, tracking or spying upon a person;
• pestering a person;
• impersonating a person;
• communicating with or about a person;
• purporting to act or communicate on behalf of a person;
• disclosing to other persons private information in respect of a person;
• interfering with the property (including pets) of a person;
• loitering in the vicinity of a person;
• causing, without the consent of the person, an electronic communication or information system operated by a person to function in a particular way.

A civil restraining order can prohibit a person from:

• Using or threatening to use violence against you, molesting or putting you in fear
• Following or communicating by any means with or about you
• Approaching a particular place such as your home, workplace, or school
• Doing anything else that the court specifies