West Cork group forced to buy tracking detector amid rise in stalking cases

A Cork support service for survivors of domestic abuse has had to purchase a tracking detection device as it is seeing so many cases where women are being put under surveillance by current or former partners.

West Cork Beacon has had 15 cases in the past year where clients coming to them for support have been tracked through devices attached to their cars, to their children’s toys and in their handbags. In one case, a tracking device was hidden in a power bank charger given to the woman by her partner.

Earlier this week, 39-year-old Seán Fagan of Dunvale Crescent, Frankfield, Douglas, was sentenced to four years with the last two years suspended at Cork Circuit Criminal Court for harassment of his former partner between September 26, 2021, and March 12, 2022.

The court heard he repeatedly showed up at the same places as her after they had broken up and a tracking device was found attached to the exhaust pipe of her car when it was examined by a mechanic in March 2022. Gardaí had advised the woman to have her car checked.

When gardaí subsequently searched Fagan’s home, they found two other tracking devices, as well as a tracker app on his phone.

Chief executive of West Cork Beacon, MaryClare Clark, said the use of tracking devices in stalking and domestic violence situations is “not very uncommon anymore with technology advances”.

Out of the 258 clients seen by the service last year, 15 had been tracked. 

“It is growing and that is just what we know about and which our clients could identify. They are very easy to get now. It is happening pretty frequently, to the extent that we just purchased a detector so that clients can detect if anything has been put on their car.” 

She said part of this is so that women moving into the service's safe house can't be traced by their abuser. The device can also be used to check client’s homes to see if there are tracking devices hidden anywhere.

Ms Clark said that in some cases abusers have placed cameras in their children’s bedrooms as part of their campaign of voyeurism of their partners. She said this is particularly disturbing as it means that actions, including the child undressing, are being viewed.

She said: "We have heard of this from more than one client that something was found in a child’s bedroom with a camera on it, that their dad was using to catch the mom doing something. 

“They are putting them on vehicles, they are putting them on their kid’s toys. We check for any seams on handbags that have been resewed to ensure there isn’t a tracker inside it.” 

Stalking, which includes following, watching, monitoring, tracking or spying upon a person, was introduced as a standalone offence in 2023.

In its submission to the consultation process on the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences, Domestic Violence and International Instruments) Bill 2025 in December, Safe Ireland advocated for stalking to be included in the legislation.

Chief executive of Women’s Aid, Sarah Benson, told the Oireachtas committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration last week that the agency is seeing a “rise not just in the issue of domestic and sexual violence but also other forms such as stalking and harassment”.