Over nearly two years the appellant made thousands of telephone calls to a woman employed at a police station. On one day a total of 636 calls were made. He pleaded guilty to two counts of public nuisance. The whole operation of the police station was disrupted, and a member of the public wishing to report a criminal offence or some other urgent matter might be prevented or delayed from doing so.
Held: The court said nothing to suggest that the charges were inappropriate. As to the common injury element: ‘Quite apart from anything else, this disrupts the whole operation of the police station to which these calls are directed, because a member of the public may wish to report an urgent matter such as a criminal offence, and cannot do so or is delayed in doing so because of this kind of behaviour on the part of the appellant.’
Judges:
Glidewell LJ
Citations:
(1986) 8 Cr App R (S) 209
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Regina v Johnson CACD 14-May-1996
The defendant had used public telephones to cause nuisance, annoyance, harassment, alarm and distress. He had made hundreds of obscene telephone calls to at least 13 women, and was convicted of causing a public nuisance. He argued that no call . .
Cited – Regina v Rimmington; Regina v Goldstein HL 21-Jul-2005
Common Law – Public Nuisance – Extent
The House considered the elements of the common law offence of public nuisance. One defendant faced accusations of having sent racially offensive materials to individuals. The second was accused of sending an envelope including salt to a friend as a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Criminal Sentencing
Updated: 16 May 2022; Ref: scu.188884