When I trained to be a journalist and in my early days on the job, the best piece of advice I was given was to find the personal, human element of a story to explain important issues. Very often it meant a lot of effort and determination to find people who would be courageous enough to put their name and face to a story about an topic or problem that impacted society, but was highly sensitive or indeed traumatic for them.

The Irish News journalist Allison Morris should be commended for bravely putting herself in the spotlight this week to highlight the devastating impact that the lack of specific stalking legislation is having on victims in Northern Ireland, by speaking out about her own experience of being harassed by an ex partner over a four-year period.

Fernando Murphy, of Balholm Drive in Belfast, was jailed for 14 months last week after being found guilty of ten offences, including harassment and breaching a restraining order. His first conviction for harassment was in November 2017, more than a year after Morris began reporting incidents to the police, at times three and four times a week.

Her account makes for deeply distressing reading about a man clearly intent on causing her stress and suffering, through a campaign of sustained threats, accusations and character assassination, often involving her employers, her family and friends.

Sadly, Morris is not alone. Her story is a familiar one to countless women who have had their lives turned upside down and continue to live in fear on a daily basis because, without adequate legislation like in the rest of the UK, the system is rigged against the victim and many perpetrators are falling through the justice net.

In England and Wales, a bill making stalking a specific offence was introduced in 2012. It made stalking a more serious crime carrying up to five years in prison. In Scotland, specific stalking legislation was brought in in 2010.

In Northern Ireland, however, stalking cases have to be brought forward as harassment and there are few prosecutions. And like several bills that have been passed in Westminster aimed at protecting women suffering domestic abuse, a recommendation to introduce new legislation around stalking in Northern Ireland was put on hold when Stormont collapsed in 2017.

These delays are simply not good enough and are putting women’s lives at risk. Victims of stalking or any domestic abuse should be able to rely on a justice system that is there to protect them. Morris’ account of her ordeal is harrowing. In one incident, she had been at work waiting on an important phone call from her pregnant daughter who’d gone to hospital on a day back in September 2016 when her stalker showed up to the Irish News offices.

When he arrived he was “ranting and screaming” and demanded she speak to him.

Morris recalls: “I tried to calm him down, to reason with an unreasonable person. I explained I was waiting on my daughter ringing with important news and didn’t need this stress.”

“He had a sandwich in his hand, cheese and pickle, and he squashed it into my hair and clothes as cars slowed down to watch. He ran off shouting that he was going to repeatedly ring my phone so my daughter couldn’t get through.”

“He rang almost 90 times in the next few hours so my phone was constantly engaged.”

What Morris highlights is not just a need for standalone legislation, however. Her experience makes it clear that there’s a need for better education and guidance around the treatment of victims in the justice process, which at present Morris said is “emotionally destroying”. There are also serious questions around sentencing; Murphy will serve just seven months in jail and another seven on licence. That sounds a small price to pay after the ordeal Morris has been through.

We will never live in a society free of the people who commit such terrifying, controlling acts, but we should be able to rely on a justice system that protects victims, not punish or stigmatise them further.