''R. v. Constanza''

997 Year 997 ( CMXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * 1 February: Empress Teishi gives birth to Princess Shushi - she is the first child of the ...

is an

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reaching the

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and is well-known (amongst other cases) for establishing the

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that

assault An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in cr ...

could be committed by causing the victim to apprehend violence which was to take place some time in the not immediate future, that it is not necessary for the victim to see the potential perpetrator of the violence, and that it was for the prosecution to prove that fear was in the victim's mind, but how it got there is irrelevant.

Facts

Mr Constanza was charged with

assault occasioning actual bodily harm Assault occasioning actual bodily harm (often abbreviated to Assault OABH, AOABH or simply ABH) is a statutory offence of aggravated assault in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Hong Kong an ...

contrary to section 47 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861. The case against him was that his behaviour was such as to cause the victim (Louise Wilson) to feel that his actions posed a threat to her personal safety. The Crown maintained that Constanza's behaviour, which included, ''inter alia'', following her, making silent telephone calls and writing on her door, and which was described as

stalking Stalking is unwanted and/or repeated surveillance by an individual or group toward another person. Stalking behaviors are interrelated to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person or monitoring them. The term ...

, writing over 800 letters to her in 4 months, had caused this great fear. Constanza had delivered a letter by hand which when read caused belief Constanza had "flipped" and would use force against her. There was medical evidence of a resultant clinical state of depression and

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...

. The Crown said that Constanza's actions had occasioned actual bodily harm.

Judgment

Constanza appealed against his conviction on the grounds that the case ought not to have been left to the

jury A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartial verdict (a finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Juries developed in England d ...

as the violence that the victim feared had not been sufficiently immediate because the victim could not see the potential perpetrator. Constanza also argued that an

could not be committed solely by words, but physical action was necessary. The appeal was dismissed. The Court of Appeal held that the time to start measuring the immediacy of the apprehended violence is the time when the victim has the fear, that it would not be right to leave the case to the jury when the violence was anticipated at some time in the distant future and that it is not necessary for the victim to be able to see the potential perpetrator of the violence. In this case, as the victim had believed that the violence could occur at any time, the judge was entitled to leave the question of whether or not the victim had a fear of immediate violence to the jury. The Court of Appeal also held that it is for the Crown (the Prosecution) to prove that fear was in the victim's mind and that it is irrelevant how it got there and that certain conduct accompanying words could make that an assault. Therefore, the appellant had committed assault.

Precautionary government reaction

In case of further instances, argued or appealed successfully for the defence, based on remoteness of the truly feared action, Parliament, passing a government bill, introduced the

Protection from Harassment Act 1997 The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (c 40) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. On introducing the Bill's second reading in the House of Lords, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, said, "The aim of this Bill is to ...

. Its maximum sentence is custodial.

External links

Transcript of the judgement in this case on BAILII
C 1997 in British law Court of Appeal (England and Wales) cases 1997 in case law