Hundreds of prosecutions under new stalking laws

Stalking victims are to get guidance from prosecutors and police to help them "prepare mentally" for giving evidence in court, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has said.

Alison Saunders said more needed to be done to help victims despite hundreds more cases being brought to court due to new legislation.

Writing in The Independent she said: "A victim of sexual assault recently told me she could have been spared a year's worth of worry about giving evidence if someone had just told her more about what to expect in court.

"It may comes as a surprise to some that this is not how we operate already, but our long-standing practice has been to leave victims to work it out for themselves. That seems to me to be not only cold and dispassionate, but unfair.

"We have come a long way since the days of prosecutors refusing to even speak with victims for fear of allegations of trying to influence their evidence, and a fair trial for a defendant can be guaranteed without this overly conservative approach."

New stalking laws which have resulted in hundreds of convictions in the past year alone are protecting victims better than ever before.

Director of public prosecutions Alison Saunders said: "I am pleased that prosecutors are making effective use of new stalking laws in order to protect victims and put their stalkers before the courts where previously, in some cases, we were unable to do so.

"These new offences enable us to bring people to court potentially before they risk going on to commit more serious crimes.

"The rise in prosecutions sends a message to both victims and criminals about how seriously we are taking these types of offences."

New stalking legislation has seen hundreds of cases brought to court that may not have been charged under previous law, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

The laws, which came into force in November 2012, allow prosecutors to bring charges where an offender's behaviour falls short of fear of violence, but where a victim is caused serious alarm or distress affecting their lifestyle.

In 2013/14 - the first full year since the new laws were introduced - 743 prosecutions were dealt with by the courts.

And prosecutions for all stalking and harassment offences, using both new and older legislation, increased by more than 20% - from 8,648 in 2012/13 to 10,535 last year.