A University College Dublin (UCD) student who was allegedly stalked by a fellow student on campus claims the institution failed to protect her after she reported the issues three months ago.
Tara (not her real name for legal reasons) had a brief romantic relationship with the young man about a year ago. She says she broke off the relationship after he tried to “control and manipulate” her, needing to know her every movement.
Over months he contacted her repeatedly, hundreds of times across multiple phone numbers, she says. Then, she says, he began to stalk her on campus.
Tara says she was living in the home of a family with young children. In one incident she describes as “terrifying”, the young man arrived at the house late at night and demanded entry, which woke the family.
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He followed Tara half way across the State and demanded entry to a private event to see her. Fellow students and security removed him.
This was “terrifying”, she says. Friends on her course convinced her to go to the Garda after the incident. Within days, in late July 2025, a court order was in place, with a formal restraining order following in early September.
Despite this, she claims, the student has continued to attempt to make contact with her on campus and at her home. She continually spots him following her around campus, she says.
In July 2025, Tara contacted the university regarding the incident. Some three months after first reporting it, she claims, the university has “failed to act” to protect her.
She says UCD claimed it could not act until it conducts an investigation, which could take up to six months, as the student did not have a criminal conviction.
She claims no disciplinary action has been taken against the student.
She alleges he has breached the university’s policies, which would allow “immediate disciplinary action including suspension or expulsion” without the need for a full investigation process. She and the other student are due to graduate at the end of the year.
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Tara says she has been bounced between a series of university reporting mechanisms and now feels “drained and emotionally exhausted”.
She sees the system as “frustratingly inflexible when it comes to protecting its students”.
UCD has now offered assurances that security will not permit the stalker’s attendance at her graduation.
UCD said it cannot comment directly on the case.
In a statement, it acknowledged the time taken to carry out independent investigations “can give rise to additional concern and worry for the people involved”. It said it has supports to help students in “such difficult cases”.
The “safety, wellbeing and security of our community on campus is paramount”, it said, noting it has a series of services in place to “ensure the safety and security of our community on campus”.
“Other specific measures are put in place to support individual members of our community where required.”
The woman’s case highlights the difficulties colleges face in handling allegations against fellow students.
Dr Catherine O’Sullivan, an expert in criminal law and feminist legal theory, says cases of alleged harassment and stalking raise a plethora of legal and ethical challenges for colleges.
There are concerns around protecting the rights of the victim and the accuser when there has not been a criminal justice outcome, which often takes a couple of years, she says. “I think that there is a general understanding that steps need to be put in place to protect a person who has made an allegation and to try to minimise contact between both parties,” she adds.
O’Sullivan co-authored a study published by University College Cork in 2023 that found more than half of 892 survey respondents identified their stalker as their partner or ex-partner. Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of survey respondents said their stalker was an acquaintance, while 29 per cent said the person was a stranger.
Sexual violence is being taken “very seriously”, but O’Sullivan says higher education institutions “are struggling with implementation”. There is greater awareness around sexual violence than there is around harassment and stalking, she says, adding that there is “room for more to be done”.
The digital landscape poses an increasing risk, says O’Sullivan, pointing to technology’s ability to facilitate stalking behaviour.
The Union of Students in Ireland’s vice-president for welfare, Emma Monahan, echoes these concerns.
“People are way more accessible than they ever have been,” she says.
Monahan believes there is an “unwillingness” from staff and students to report harassment incidents.
Speak Out offers an anonymous reporting mechanism now used by 17 higher education institutions. The tool, piloted in 2021, is designed to collect data and signpost students towards further support and formal reporting procedures.
Elaine Mears, co-ordinator of the national Speak Out office in Trinity College Dublin, says the project aims to break down the fear around making a disclosure about on-campus issues such as bullying, sexual violence and stalking.
People are reluctant to report these issues because, she says, “they feel that nothing will be done, they feel disempowered, they’re afraid that it’s going to negatively impact them”.
Eve McDowell (26), a victim of stalking while at the University of Galway, says students, especially first-years, are “especially vulnerable” to stalking.
“A lot of them have moved out of home for the first time. They’re meeting loads of new connections, and some of these connections they might be spending four years with in a class,” says McDowell, who worked as a healthy relationships and consent educator with Active* Consent.
“If there’s a dispute or if the perpetrator is in their class, that puts university staff in a difficult position. I don’t think there are enough outlined procedures in place to take action on these things,” she says.
Matters escalated, and the man broke into McDowell’s apartment and assaulted her flatmate with a hammer early one morning, resulting in his arrest. In 2020, he was sentenced to seven years in prison with the final two years suspended.
McDowell’s experience inspired her to spearhead a campaign for new legislation to make stalking a distinct offence. She joined forces with Una Ring, a woman from Cork who survived a similar experience, to create an online support group.
Following campaigning from them, a standalone criminal offence of stalking with a maximum sentence of 10 years was introduced in 2023, while existing harassment laws were widened.
The new legal mechanism, which came into force in September 2024, enables victims who did not have an intimate or familial relationship with their stalker to apply to the District Court for a civil restraining order. Between then and the end of June 2025, 1,117 applications were made, 336 of which resulted in civil orders being granted, the Courts Service said.
McDowell believes awareness of the scale of stalking is key, and increased training and resourcing for gardaí and university staff will lead to better handling of the problems.
“To fix the problem we need to know how big the problem is ... It is a complex topic and a heavy topic, so I think sometimes people might shy away from that.”
