Omagh woman: New stalking law failed to protect my family

THE victims of Omagh stalker Raymond Newell say the new Stalking Prevention Order (SPO) has ‘failed to deter crime’ after he breached the terms just weeks after it was imposed.

Newell was one of the first in Northern Ireland to have an SPO placed against him following his guilty plea last September to persistent stalking and harassment.

SPOs were introduced in 2024 under the Protection from Stalking Act (Northern Ireland) 2022. They were designed to allow police to intervene early in investigations and disrupt stalking behaviour before it escalates.

But after Newell reoffended, Lorraine Campbell – one of his victims – said the order had not worked.

“I think the SPO isn’t worth the paper it’s written on,” she told the Herald. “It was supposed to prevent him from offending, and eight weeks later he was caught outside my house.

“This happened in November last year, yet we had to wait ten months for the case to be dealt with.”

She described the impact on her family as devastating.

“My teenage daughter won’t come near my house anymore because she is scared Raymond will be standing outside. After the first sentence she started to come back, but once he was seen again she stopped.

“He might have gotten three months this time, but what happens after that? There’s nothing in the SPO that really deters him. He does a short stint in prison and then he’s back out doing the same thing.

“To me these sentences are just a slap on the wrist. I don’t think he’ll ever stop – and I just don’t have faith in the law anymore.”