New legislation to protect women and girls in Jersey is due to be lodged this year – including plans to criminalise online abuse and stalking, and make non-fatal strangulation a standalone offence.

Deputy Louise Doublet asked the Home Affairs Minister to provide an update on the progress being made in implementing the recommendations made in the Violence Against Women and Girls Taskforce report.

Published in November 2023, the report found that “gaps” in Jersey’s legislation were “undermining the ability of the criminal justice system to protect victim-survivors or effectively manage perpetrators” – and made 77 recommendations to address this.

Deputy Mary Le Hegarat this week confirmed that law drafting instructions are currently being developed to address the report’s legislative recommendations.

“It is currently anticipated that all will be lodged within 2025,” she said.

These developments include strengthening legislation to address online and technology-facilitated abuse.

This will include criminalising the act of taking an “intimate image” of someone without their consent, and creating a new offence of distributing or threatening to distribute an intimate image of someone without their consent.

Deputy Le Hegarat previously said these “intimate images” will include sexually explicit deep fakes.

There are also plans to amend the Domestic Abuse (Jersey) Law 2022 to introduce pre-conviction emergency barring orders.

These legal measures are designed to provide immediate protection for victims of domestic abuse before a criminal conviction has been secured against the alleged perpetrator.

The orders are typically issued without the need for a criminal charge or conviction, focusing on the safety of the victim rather than the criminal liability of the accused.

The Home Affairs Minister also pledged to make non-fatal strangulation a standalone offence after a local restauranteur was convicted of a list of violent offences against two women last year.

Gavin Roberts (45) was described as a repeat offender who regularly got drunk and grabbed women around the neck.

One of his victims, Suzie Mahe, said that she was “so ashamed that Jersey doesn’t have the non-fatal strangulation law”.

And Sarah Hamon, who is at the head of the Jersey Domestic Abuse Service, said that the introduction of the Domestic Abuse Law last year was “a missed opportunity” to make non-fatal strangulation a specific offence.

In response, Deputy Le Hegarat confirmed that new legislation to introduce a standalone offence for non-fatal strangulation will be lodged with the Council of Ministers by December 2025 at the latest.

Stalking is also set to become a standalone offence after the taskforce identified a “significant gap in the current legislation”.

The UK put in place specific legislation in relation to stalking after it was recognised that many victims felt that they were not taken seriously by the criminal justice system and that stalking needed to be named as a specific offence – but stalking is still not a named offence in Jersey.

Nearly 200 reports of stalking were made to the States of Jersey Police between 2016 and 2021, resulting in two convictions.

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