The free library100 of 85 Harassment & communications

Harassment

s.2Protection from Harassment Act 1997

Pursuing a course of conduct which amounts to harassment of another, and which you know or ought to know amounts to harassment.

Harassment · Protection from Harassment Act 1997, s.2Card 100 / 85

Points to prove

Course of conduct – s.7(3): conduct on at least two occasions in relation to a single person, or (under s.1(1A)) conduct on at least one occasion in relation to each of two or more persons.
Conduct – s.7(4): includes speech.
Harassment – s.7(2): includes alarming the person or causing them distress. The victim must be an individual (s.7(5)).
Ought to know – s.1(2): if a reasonable person in possession of the same information would think the course of conduct amounted to harassment.
Aiding and abetting – s.7(3A): conduct by one person that another aids, abets, counsels or procures is treated as the conduct of both.

s.1(3) – the defendant must show that the course of conduct was pursued to prevent or detect crime, under any enactment or rule of law, or that in the particular circumstances it was reasonable.

s.1(1A) – a second form: harassing two or more people, intending to persuade any person not to do something they are entitled or required to do, or to do something they are not obliged to do.
Two incidents do not automatically make a course of conduct. The fewer and further apart they are, the less likely they are to be a course of conduct (Lau v DPP 2000).
Putting people in fear of violence (s.4) and stalking (ss.2A and 4A) are the more serious related offences. Racially or religiously aggravated harassment is an either-way offence under s.32 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (maximum 2 years).

Legislation: Protection from Harassment Act 1997, s.2 (opens legislation.gov.uk in a new tab)
Mode of trial: Summary only
Maximum penalty: 6 months' imprisonment and/or a fine