Coco Lance

that we're finally here passing New Zealand's first bill that defines and acknowledges stalking as a form of abuse. For years, stalking victims in New Zealand have been told there is only so much the law can do. Even as fears escalated, as behaviours became obsessive, and when victims believed they were in serious danger.

I was driving to my house after finding my address online and he drove to my house, wrote letters and dropped them in my letterbox. And a police officer friend of hers told her it wouldn't be worth it for her going through the legal system. But to give some perspective here, her case might have been considered minor, but it cast a huge shadow over her daily life.

Because Pieta never went to court, we legally can't tell you her stalker's name. But we know who he is, and we know what he has been convicted of. The list is not short, and he's currently in prison. In Pieta's case, the situation didn't escalate, but often it does. Later in the podcast, we'll hear about a woman whose stalker murdered her.

We'll come back to Pieta's story later in the podcast. But first, I'm Coco Lance, and that's lawyer Katie Hogan. And today on The Detail, she's going to talk us through the law change that comes into force today that will make stalking a specific criminal offence for the very first time.

and control the behaviour of someone during a prosecution more effectively through bail conditions and the like. I'm assuming that this new legislation will be well received across the legal sector and for those within the police force. Can you kind of foresee any barriers with the implementation of this legislation?

Let's take a step back and look at what the situation used to be like. Because even though there was no specific stalking legislation, there were provisions that could catch such behaviour. What is being changed is our Crimes Act and some new sections are going in there making a new crime, the crime of stalking.

Katie points to the 2022 murder of 21-year-old Whasana Yakubi, who was subjected to relentless stalking by 30-year-old Kanwa Palsing, as an example of why advocates pushed for these new laws and better training across the justice system.

as risk factors and culpability enhancing factors. When Pieta was 20 years old, she began a new job at a car dealership. She says the last thing she expected was to leave that job less than a year later. But a few days into the new gig, an anonymous online account began sending her abusive, explicit messages, including personal details about her life.

After some investigating, Pieta discovered something unsettling. The person behind the account was a colleague twice her age, working alongside her every day. Someone who, it turns out, had a long history of stalking. I knew someone that was a policeman or an investigator and he did one Google search and sent it to my mum and my mum showed me in the car and

So did you receive any support from the police from there? So they obviously were aware of what was going on and they had examples and evidence of what he was doing to you but you obviously said your police officer friend kind of insinuated that nothing was going to be able to come of this so did you get any more support from anyone else and what did that kind of look like when you were asking for help from those around you?

didn't even see them so he just sort of gave up but yeah I didn't get any other help except for just like family support really. Was it that the law itself wasn't fit for purpose like they physically were saying to you we can't actually do anything about this situation and the evidence that they have was it

You are someone who I think seems you have come out of this awful experience with a strong head on your shoulders and, you know, you're living your life now. But how are things today and how do you feel, I guess, about the new legislation that will be coming into place to finally criminalise stalking?

That's it for today. The Detail is a Newsroom production supported by RNZ and New Zealand On Air. This episode was engineered by Jeremy Ansell and produced by Alexia Russell and Gwen McClure. Thanks to Pieta and to Katie Hogan. I'm Coco Lance, on loan to The Detail from RNZ Pacific.