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Intimidation or harassment is a personalised form of anti-social behaviour, specifically aimed at particular individuals. People experience repeated incidents and problems of intimidation and harassment day after day. In some cases, the victim and the perpetrator live close to each other, often as neighbours. The intensity and frequency of incidents, combined with the proximity of victim and perpetrator, not only makes harassment and intimidation extremely distressing, it also makes it difficult for recipients of this kind of abuse from taking a stand and speaking out against the behaviour.
Local authorities have a responsibility to take immediate enforcement action to protect those who are being harassed or intimidated. This may be through an injunction or an interim ASBO (which may be obtained without notice to the defendant) and can provide immediate relief and raise confidence in the ability of local agencies to tackle this sort of anti-social behaviour.
Anti-social behaviour orders and injunctions are available to protect people from behaviour causing harassment, alarm or distress. An order on conviction may be appropriate where someone has been convicted in court for an offence related to their intimidation or harassment of another person. Where action is taken in the county court, an ASBO can be made against a party to the main proceedings or another adult whose conduct is material to the proceedings.
Conditions of the order may include a ban from the area where the victims live or a specific ban on approaching or communicating with the victims. Because these court orders are made in civil proceedings, hearsay evidence can be used to protect victims who are too scared to come to court.
For more information on ASBOs and anti-social behaviour in general, see our 'Anti-social behaviour' section.
One of the most common forms of harassment is malicious or nuisance telephone calls. This includes both landline and mobiles. Abusive, annoying, harassing, obscene or threatening telephone calls are an invasion of your privacy. There are a number of things that you can do to limit these types of calls, ranging from contacting your telephone service provider to changing your number. There is also legislation specifically aimed at nuisance calls which we'll discuss below.
Injunctions may be made under Housing Act or Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 provisions, where the harassment or intimidation is housing-related, or under section 222 Local Government Act 1972 or Article 116 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972, which enables local authorities to take court action to promote or protect the interests of the inhabitants of their area.
Eviction of the perpetrator is another option, moving the individual away from those whom they are intimidating or harassing. It is important that this is accompanied by other action, such as an injunction, to ensure that the behaviour does not reoccur in a new area, or that the perpetrator does not return to the area to intimidate those who assisted the eviction action.
Intimidation or harassment may constitute a criminal offence under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 in England & Wales or the Protection from Harassment (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 in Northern Ireland (collectively referred to as 'PHA'). A restraining order may be made in addition to the conviction, or an injunction obtained.
The PHA is the main criminal legislation dealing with the offence of harassment. It can cover a wide range of conduct and behaviours, including racial or religious motivated harassment, and could also be used to prosecute certain types of anti-social behaviour where these amount to 'harassment', such as playing loud music, barking dogs or noisy house repairs.
In England and Wales, it is an also offence to cause harassment, alarm or distress under the Public Order Act 1986. This carries a £1000 fine or a penalty notice of £80.
The PHA creates a criminal offence of harassment. S1 (1) of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and Article 3(1) of the Protection from Harassment (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 state:
A person must not pursue a course of conduct:
To obtain a conviction for criminal harassment, the prosecution needs to prove beyond all reasonable doubt, three elements:
Criminal harassment is a 'summary only' offence dealt with by the magistrates' court and carries a maximum sentence of:
Criminal harassment in Northern Ireland carries the following maximum sentences:
Upon conviction, the court can make a restraining order, breach of which carries the following maximum penalties:
In addition to the criminal sanction, a civil court (county court or high court) can also impose civil injunctions in harassment cases as well as awarding damages to the victim for the harassment.
The PHA makes a breach of such an injunction a criminal offence, which is:
Harassing phone calls
A person who makes indecent, offensive or threatening calls to another, via the telephone system network, is guilty of an offence under s43 of the Telecommunications Act 1984 and s92 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
The conviction penalty varies from imprisonment to a maximum fine of £5,000.
In some cases (e.g. where the malicious calls are one element of a wider charge, such as breach of an injunction, where there have been threats to kill etc.) the defendant could be held in contempt of court or charged with grievous bodily harm or actual bodily harm under the Offences Against the Person Act.
It is also an offence to send an indecent, offensive or threatening letter or other form of electronic communication to another person in the terms of:
