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Criminal law – Harassment – Course of conduct – Information alleging conduct on one date only – Justices hearing evidence relating to conduct occurring before date on information – Whether justices entitled to construe course of conduct as including acts of harassment occurring on unspecified occasions prior to that date – Protection from Harassment Act 1997, s 2.
Notes
The appellant, B, was charged that he ‘On 4 December 1999 … pursued a course of conduct which amounted to harassment of [H] which you knew or ought to have known amounted to harassment contrary to s 2 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997’. The justices heard evidence that B and the complainant, H, were next door neighbours and from April 1999, following an incident involving R’s car after which H had called the police, B had verbally abused and threatened H on numerous occasions. B did not complain about the admission of evidence prior to 4 December. The justices convicted B being of the opinion that they were not restricted to looking only at 4 December to find a course of conduct, but that they could take into account relevant preceding behaviour. B appealed by way of case stated.
The appeal would be dismissed.
On the facts, the justices had been entitled to admit evidence of events alleged to have occurred outside the date contained in the information since that evidence was admissible to show the effect B’s conduct had had on H. Moreover, having admitted that evidence, the justices were entitled to find that a course of conduct included those events as well as the events which occurred on the date stated in the information. The evidence had been admitted without any objection from B and he had not been prejudiced by its admission.
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