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Stalking is unwanted behaviour from one person towards another person. Stalking laws prohibit publishing on the Internet or by an e-mail or other electronic communication to any person a statement or other material relating to the victim or any other person.

The victim need not be named in the internet posts for an offence to be proven.

In a webpost entitled ‘Technology Assisted Abuse’, Victoria Police states that stalking is a criminal offence.

Victims of Crime say: “Stalking is a crime in Victoria. When someone repeatedly behaves like this, it may qualify as stalking.”

The Federal e-Safety Commissioner advises that journalist Hugh Riminton will be Master of Ceremonies at the eSafety 19 conference to be held at the Hilton Sydney on Wednesday, September 11.

The seminar deals with online safety and education, artificial intelligence, ethical tech, #SafetybyDesign, and how governments and industry can protect citizens from online harm such as tech-facilitated abuse.

CRIMES ACT 1958 – SECT 21A

Stalking
S. 21A(1) amended by No. 48/1997
s. 60(1)(Sch. 1 item 14).

(1)     A person must not stalk another person.

Penalty: Level 5 imprisonment (10 years maximum).

S. 21A(2) amended by Nos 105/2003 s. 4(1), 20/2011 s. 3(3).

(2)     A person (the offender) stalks another person (the victim) if the offender engages in a course of conduct which includes any of the following—

    (a)     following the victim or any other person;

S. 21A(2)(b) substituted by No. 105/2003 s. 3(1).

    (b)     contacting the victim or any other person by post, telephone, fax, text message, e-mail or other electronic communication or by any other means whatsoever;

S. 21A(2)(ba) inserted by No. 105/2003 s. 3(1).

    (ba)     publishing on the Internet or by an e-mail or other electronic communication to any person a statement or other material—

          (i)     relating to the victim or any other person; or

          (ii)     purporting to relate to, or to originate from, the victim or any other person;

S. 21A(2)(bb) inserted by No. 105/2003 s. 3(1).

    (bb)     causing an unauthorised computer function (within the meaning of Subdivision (6) of Division 3) in a computer owned or used by the victim or any other person;

S. 21A(2)(bc) inserted by No. 105/2003 s. 3(1).

    (bc)     tracing the victim's or any other person's use of the Internet or of e-mail or other electronic communications;

    (c)     entering or loitering outside or near the victim's or any other person's place of residence or of business or any other place frequented by the victim or the other person;

    (d)     interfering with property in the victim's or any other person's possession (whether or not the offender has an interest in the property);

S. 21A(2)(da) inserted by No. 20/2011 s. 3(1).

    (da)     making threats to the victim;

S. 21A(2)(db) inserted by No. 20/2011 s. 3(1).

    (db)     using abusive or offensive words to or in the presence of the victim;

S. 21A(2)(dc) inserted by No. 20/2011 s. 3(1).

    (dc)     performing abusive or offensive acts in the presence of the victim;

S. 21A(2)(dd) inserted by No. 20/2011 s. 3(1).

    (dd)     directing abusive or offensive acts towards the victim;

    (e)     giving offensive material to the victim or any other person or leaving it where it will be found by, given to or brought to the attention of, the victim or the other person;

    (f)     keeping the victim or any other person under surveillance;

S. 21A(2)(g) substituted by No. 20/2011 s. 3(2).

    (g)     acting in any other way that could reasonably be expected—

          (i)     to cause physical or mental harm to the victim, including self-harm; or

          (ii)     to arouse apprehension or fear in the victim for his or her own safety or that of any other person—

with the intention of causing physical or mental harm to the victim, including self-harm, or of arousing apprehension or fear in the victim for his or her own safety or that of any other person.

S. 21A(3) substituted by No. 105/2003 s. 4(2), amended by No. 20/2011 s. 3(4).

(3)     For the purposes of this section an offender also has the intention to cause physical or mental harm to the victim, including self-harm, or to arouse apprehension or fear in the victim for his or her own safety or that of any other person if—

    (a)     the offender knows that engaging in a course of conduct of that kind would be likely to cause such harm or arouse such apprehension or fear; or

    (b)     the offender in all the particular circumstances ought to have understood that engaging in a course of conduct of that kind would be likely to cause such harm or arouse such apprehension or fear and it actually did have that result.

(4)     This section does not apply to conduct engaged in by a person performing official duties for the purpose of—

    (a)     the enforcement of the criminal law; or

    (b)     the administration of any Act; or

    (c)     the enforcement of a law imposing a pecuniary penalty; or

    (d)     the execution of a warrant; or

    (e)     the protection of the public revenue—

that, but for this subsection, would constitute an offence against subsection (1).

S. 21A(4A) inserted by No. 105/2003 s. 3(2).

(4A)     In a proceeding for an offence against subsection (1) it is a defence to the charge for the accused to prove that the course of conduct was engaged in without malice—

    (a)     in the normal course of a lawful business, trade, profession or enterprise (including that of any body or person whose business, or whose principal business, is the publication, or arranging for the publication, of news or current affairs material); or

    (b)     for the purpose of an industrial dispute; or

    (c)     for the purpose of engaging in political activities or discussion or communicating with respect to public affairs.

S. 21A(5) repealed by No. 68/2008 s. 69(1).

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S. 21A(5A) inserted by No. 52/2008 s. 242, repealed by No. 68/2008 s. 69(1).

*     *     *     *     *

S. 21A(6) inserted by No. 105/2003 s. 5.

(6)     It is immaterial that some or all of the course of conduct constituting an offence against subsection (1) occurred outside Victoria, so long as the victim was in Victoria at the time at which that conduct occurred.

S. 21A(7) inserted by No. 105/2003 s. 5.

(7)     It is immaterial that the victim was outside Victoria at the time at which some or all of the course of conduct constituting an offence against subsection (1) occurred, so long as that conduct occurred in Victoria.

S. 21A(8) inserted by No. 20/2011 s. 3(5).

(8)     In this section—

“mental harm” includes—

    (a)     psychological harm; and

    (b)     suicidal thoughts.

Note to s. 21A inserted by No. 68/2008 s. 69(2), substituted by No. 53/2010 s. 221(Sch. item 4).

Note

The Personal Safety Intervention Orders Act 2010 provides that the Court within the meaning of that Act may make a personal safety intervention order in respect of stalking.

S. 22 substituted by No. 10233 s. 8(2), amended by Nos 49/1991 s. 119(1)
(Sch. 2 item 9), 48/1997
s. 60(1)(Sch. 1 item 14).