A Cork woman whose stalker was jailed for seven years says new anti-stalking laws will act as a huge deterrent and lead to more people coming forward to report that they have been victims of stalking.
Una Ring from Youghal was speaking after the Cabinet signed-off on new legislation that will see stalking become a standalone offence under Irish law.
The offence will carry a maximum 10 year prison sentence and will include stalking via all forms of modern communications.
Una was instrumental in getting the new law- which it's hoped will be in place before the end of the year- in front of the cabinet.
Gardaí are also due to receive more training in how to deal with victims of stalking.
Speaking to RedFM News, Una says she was shocked when she saw how many people had been stalked.
"Myself and Eve McDowell set up stalking.ie - it's an informative website of how to report it, how to speak about it with families, how to support stalking victims.
"We were inundated with e-mails from stalking victims to the point where we actually had to pull away from it. We were getting tens of emails every night, I'd say we got a couple of hundred.
"We just weren't qualified really to help them or to counsel them, we were dealing without own trauma at the time so we had to step back for our own mental health.
"The amount of emails we got in - we really didn't think stalking was that prevalent, but it really is."
