As part of its law and order announcement yesterday, Labour said it will consider creating a separate offence of stalking under the Crime Act.
Currently, stalking in New Zealand comes under the umbrella of harassment, which could see a person jailed for up to two years if found guilty.
Labour wants to bring in laws similar to what Australia and the UK have introduced, which have penalties of up to three years in prison and more for aggravating factors.
This morning, a stalking survivor said separating stalking and harassment is a “decent idea”, holding stalkers accountable for the trauma they cause.
Melee Dowle was 16 when she met a 32-year-old at an IT class he was helping out at.
The two never really interacted, aside from a brief 10-minute conversation. While it was fairly innocuous for Dowle, it started an unhealthy obsession for the man.
“When I had gotten home, I received a message from him saying that he’d found my Facebook account,” Dowle told Breakfast.
“And at first, I wasn’t really sure how to take it.”
He would send “big long messages” to Dowle, which made her feel incredibly uncomfortable.
“Eventually, I talked to my brother about it and said ‘basically that I was uncomfortable’, he told me to cut it off there and block him.”
After that, Dowle went on with her life for a whole year, unaware that his obsession was festering.
Dowle’s family was shocked when he started sending “paragraphs” to Melee’s sister, saying he was making a game – named after the young woman and using art she’d created.
“It was quite the shock.
“I didn’t quite know how to take it, I still don’t. I feel like I haven’t processed it very properly.”
Stalking becomes worse
After discovering he’d written things about her on the internet, Dowle and her family went to the police, getting a harassment order delivered.
They thought it would be the end of it, but the stalking only became worse.
“It was less than an hour later when he was bombarding my brother with messages.”
He sent 21 paragraphs where he called her family “demonic” and targeted her mother.
“He said I better respond to him, or he’ll do something crazy, something along the lines of that.
“I felt a lot of things, I was mostly confused and very scared at that point.”
She said he breached harassment orders “quite often”, which only made her ordeal worse.
“It would just go over his head. Every rule that was put in place almost seemed like a challenge to him.”
Eventually, he ended up in court. Dowle never thought “it would go that far”.
He was sentenced to 18 months of intensive supervision in July, which Dowle is “quite happy with”. She told the judge she wanted to waive her automatic right to name suppression.
“I was happy. A lot of people suggested that she should have been sent to prison, but I think the main thing is that he is prevented from doing this again.
“That’s the justice I was looking for, I wanted it to be on his record that this is how he treats women he knows.”
Now, just a couple of months after her stalker’s sentencing, Dowle has reacted to Labour’s plan to consider changes to stalking laws, should it return to power after next month's election.
“I think it might be a decent idea to keep it separate from harassment,” she said.
She said that making the offence more specific would go a long way in giving victims justice.
“I suppose it’s more specific, and it goes on his record because, at the moment, it says he harassed me, which is true.
“But he stalked me, and I think that should be known.”
Currently, stalking and harassment are covered by different pieces of legislation, including the Harassment Act, the Family Violence Act and the Harmful Digital Communications Act.
Current approach not working
But advocates say the piecemeal approach isn’t working for victims.
Speaking to Breakfast, clinical psychologist Dr Alison Towns said that it’s about time proper laws around stalking were introduced.
“People do lose their lives, so we need something to be happening as soon as possible,” Clinical psychologist Dr Alison Towns said.
“We understand that Covid and the floods have taken time away from these matters, but this is quite urgent,” she said.
“People do lose their lives, so we need something to be happening as soon as possible.”
She said the impact stalking can have on its survivors can be extreme, and new laws will be able to support them by stopping the crime earlier.
“What we don’t have is standalone stalking law. We have bits of law here, there and everywhere, which makes it hard to police.
“So what we’re wanting is an easier way for police to be able to do something about this.
“Stalking is associated with homicide, so that it can be quite serious.”
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