At the end of last year the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced changes for victims of stalking to be given more protection.
With an increase in tech abuse, not knowing the identity of an online stalker can be extremely unsettling with victims left in the dark as to whether the offender is known to them, which can put them in more danger.
The Home Secretary issued new ‘Right to Know’ statutory guidance. This will empower the police to release the identity of an online stalker at the earliest opportunity. Victims who are subject to this chilling crime now have greater reassurance that they will be quickly told the identity of the individual threatening them online.
Victims will also be given more protection from offenders by making Stalking Protection Orders more widely available – these orders can ban stalkers from going within a certain distance of their victims or contacting them. Stalkers can also be asked to attend a perpetrator programme to address the root causes of their behaviour.
On announcing the crackdown measures, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said:
“Stalking is a horrendous crime. For far too long, victims of stalking have been subject to debilitating and vicious abuse at the hands of stalkers who use any means necessary to monitor and control their victims’ lives.
Let us be clear – we will use every tool available to us to give more power to victims and take it away from the hands of their abusers. This starts with empowering police to give women the right to know the identity of their online stalkers, strengthening stalking protection orders and ensuring that the police work with all support services to give victims the protection they deserve.”
These new measures are an important part of the cross-government mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.
Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips, said:
“As a victim of stalking myself, I know just how terrifying it can be to be subject to such controlling behaviour.
These measures are just the first step and we will do more to crack down on this sickening crime which no one deserves to experience.”
If you are concerned that you are experiencing stalking behaviour then you can talk to someone. The police national non-emergency telephone number is staffed 24/7. Call 101 and report what happened or just get some advice.