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Criminal law – Harassment – Course of conduct – Two incidents between husband and wife taking place whilst still living together and against background of deteriorating relationship – Whether incidents amounting to course of conduct – Protection from Harassment Act 1997, s 2.
Notes
This is another example of the use of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 in circumstances which had not been envisaged when the act was passed. One incident involved a husband throwing a beaker of water over his wife. Three months later, during the course of which the relationship had deteriorated, he chased his wife through the house, repeatedly questioning her and swearing at her.
It was ruled that this amounted to a course of conduct causing harassment, although it was conceded that this was a borderline case. The cases of R v Hills and Lau v DPP were considered. However this case could be distinguished from Hills in that the conduct took place over a shorter period of time and the relationship had deteriorated. It was distinguished from Lau in that the two incidents were connected in terms of type and the context in which they took place.
The judge did say that the prosecution should be cautious about bringing cases where there are only a small number of incidents, but they are hardly likely to be discouraged by rulings like these!
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