Victorian Consolidated Legislation

Crimes Act 1958 - SECT 21A

Stalking

21A. Stalking





(1) A person must not stalk another person.

Penalty: Level 5 imprisonment (10 years maximum).

(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;

   (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;

   (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;

   (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;

   (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);

   (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;

   (g)  acting in any other way that could reasonably be expected 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 or of
arousing apprehension or fear in the victim for his or her own safety or that
of any other person.

(3) For the purposes of this section an offender also has the intention to
cause physical or mental harm to the victim 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).

(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.

(5) Despite anything to the contrary in the Crimes (Family Violence) Act 1987,
the Court within the meaning of that Act may make an intervention order under
that Act in respect of a person (the defendant) if satisfied on the balance of
probabilities that the defendant has stalked another person and is likely to
continue to do so or to do so again and for this purpose that Act has effect
as if the other person were a family member in relation to the defendant
within the meaning of that Act if he or she would not otherwise be so.

(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.

(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.