You and Hunting Law
Harassment
Jamie Foster
Jamie is a Solicitor-Advocate with Higher Rights of Audience in all courts. He is a recognised expert in Animal Welfare Law and Field Sports Law. He has a large national caseload defending those involved in trading standards, health and safety and environmental investigations and prosecutions. He has recently co-authored the “Law of Field Sports”. He is an authority on cases involving hunting, shooting or disturbance of badgers and regularly defends members of the hunting and shooting communities. The defence that he ran for the countryman of the South Dorset Hunt last year led to a change in the Crown Prosecution Service Guidance and the ACPO guidance on the use of covert surveillance in Hunting Act cases.
The question of what amounts to harassment and how the law deals with harassment arises on a regular basis in the conversations that I have with hunting clients. It is an area that causes a great deal of confusion, and as a result, a lot of people engaged in lawful hunting are not benefiting from the legal protections that they ought to enjoy.
In England and Wales there are a numerous of pieces of legislation that deal with anti-social and inappropriate behaviour. In many ways the most useful in a hunting context is the Protection form Harassment Act 1997. The Act came about because in the mid 1990s there was a great moral panic about stalkers. I don't mean those people lucky enough to spend their days in the Scottish Highlands looking for the perfect stag. The stalkers that got everyone excited back then were sad and lonely misfits who followed female celebrities around and sent huge volumes of inappropriate fan mail. It became apparent that there was no legal mechanism for dealing with these people so the Protection from Harassment Act was born.
The Act makes it an offence to engage in a course of conduct that causes another person to experience harassment, alarm or distress. The person doing the harassing must know that his conduct causes the other person to feel this way. Having said that, almost any repeated activity can amount to harassment if a court agrees that a person of reasonable firmness would be harassed, alarmed or distressed by it.
In a hunting context this means that it is possible that a lot of the activities that antis engage in may amount to unlawful harassment. The important features are that firstly there must be an identifiable individual causing the harassing and another identifiable individual being harassed. It is no good saying that a group of antis are harassing a hunt. The behaviour will only amount to an offence if it happens more than once and it is the behaviour of a particular person who knows that another particular person will be upset if it happens the second time.
Harassment is also not just behaviour that one disapproves of. It must be behaviour that causes a person of reasonable firmness harassment alarm or distress. It may be annoying to be filmed when out hunting but it is only likely to amount to an offence where someone is individually targeted in a way that is clearly inappropriate. Having said that, if a hunt monitor repeatedly films the same child despite knowing that this causes the child or its parent harassment, alarm or distress, then arguably this could be dealt with under the Protection from Harassment Act.
Similarly, if individuals are constantly swearing at you or following you and blowing horns or trying to make your life a misery, it may be possible to use the Act to deal with the situation.
The Act contains both civil and criminal remedies. If you feel that you are the victim of harassment report it to the police. Be careful to make sure that you are describing the actions of an identifiable individual who ought to know that you are being harassed. Also be careful to satisfy yourself that what you are describing is something that most people would accept is likely to cause you to feel harassed. Don’t be despondent if the police tell you they can’t do anything. Make sure you take the details of the officer that you reported the harassment to and any crime number. If the police can’t help it may be that a solicitor can by bringing civil proceedings.
It is very important to get good legal advice if you feel that you are the victim of harassment, or if anyone is accusing you of harassing them. If you are in any doubt, the Countryside Alliance helpline is a good source of information and advice.
TMV: Can we deal with a couple of real life situations? If a big white van sits purposefully outside the entrance to hunt kennels. Is this harassment? It may be a car park, or legal parking, or whatever. But if they sit there with the sole purpose of following any hunt personnel/ vehicles which leave the kennels. If that is not harassment – it certainly is intimidation. I know, as a former huntsman, I have experienced this. Is this not harassment?
JMF: It may be that this behaviour does amount to harassment. As I said in my article it will depend to a large extent on whether an identifiable individual is responsible for the behaviour and whether the behaviour is directed at an identifiable individual. Cleary simply parking in a legal parking place will not amount to harassment by itself. Following individual hunt personnel repeatedly when the person doing the following knows that this is causing them distress may well do. Unfortunately, as in most legal cases there is no simple answer. It will depend upon all of the circumstances.
TMV: What about if a huntsman is standing on a hillside, blowing his horn to gather hounds up, can an anti be allowed to come and stand within the middle of the pack of hounds? I say this is harassment, as what they could well be doing is spraying the hounds with chemicals which make them lose their scenting abilities. Can said anti be told to get out from within the hounds, and be forcibly removed if he/she does not move out?
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Jamie Foster
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