The defendant appealed against his conviction under the 1977 Act. He and the complainant had been in a volatile relationship. Both were police constables. He said that though there had been incidents, they had not amounted to a course of conduct within the Act.
Held: The issue is whether, on the evidence, the appellant had pursued a course of conduct in relation to D which amounted to harassment of her. If he did, there was sufficient evidence to go to the jury on the ‘fear’ element in section 4(1). No definition of harassment appears in the 1997 Act save that section 7(2) provides that reference to harassing a person includes harming the person or causing the person distress.
Pill LJ said: ‘To harass as defined in the Concise Oxford Dictionary, Tenth Edition, is to ‘torment by subjecting to constant interference or intimidation’. The conduct must be unacceptable to a degree which would sustain criminal liability and also must be oppressive.’
Judges:
Pill LJ, Bennett, Field JJ
Citations:
[2010] EWCA Crim 123, [2010] 1 Cr App R 31, [2010] 3 All ER 849, [2010] 1 WLR 2770, [2010] Crim LR 638
Links:
Statutes:
Protection from Harassment Act 1997 4(1)
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Regina v Haque CACD 26-Jul-2011
The defendant appealed against conviction under section 4(1) of the 1997 Act. It was not disputed that the prosecution had to prove (1) that there had been a course of conduct on the part of the appellant, (2) that the course of conduct had caused . .
Indistinguishable – Widdows, Regina v CACD 21-Jun-2011
Reasons for allowing of appeal from conviction of offence of putting someone in fear.
Held: ‘The emphasis in the summing up was not on what amounts to harassment but what amounts to assault. Further direction was required as to what can be a . .
Cited – Gerrard and Another v Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Ltd and Another QBD 27-Nov-2020
The claimants, a solicitor and his wife, sought damages in harassment and data protection, against a party to proceedings in which he was acting professionally, and against the investigative firm instructed by them. The defendants now requested the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime
Updated: 29 May 2022; Ref: scu.396718