Harassment with Fear of Violence Client Avoids Prison.

Case study summary

Our client was charged with pursuing a course of conduct which amounted to harassment causing fear of violence. Our client entered a guilty plea and we presented his excellent mitigation to the Court. The District Judge then handed down a suspended sentence order.

Case study

In June 2023, our client approached his neighbour's address on three occasions, yelling and aggressively hammering at her door. This footage was captured on a Ring Doorbell camera. Our client was previously of good character and we made representations to this effect to the Crown Prosecution Service with a view to referring this matter to the police station for a caution. While we accepted that this was a serious incident, we felt that this charge was designed to apply to more serious circumstances than those in this case. The CPS did not share our views and chose to continue their prosecution anyway. Our client deeply regretted these actions and was incredibly ashamed. He had been incredibly intoxicated at the time of the offence as he had struggled to overcome his troubles with alcoholism.

He began to abuse alcohol after the death of his wife and father in quick succession in December 2021. He had still not overcome his grief and uses alcohol to cope with this. He struggled with anxiety and PTSD as well as partial-sightedness and these factors combined caused him to suffer a great degree of paranoia.

On the dates of the incidents in question, he became paranoid that his neighbours had entered his home and moved his belongings which led him to approach their home on these occasions. Since the offence, our client had made significant efforts to reduce his alcohol consumption and has been engaging with alcohol support services in order to prevent this sort of reoffending.

After hearing the mitigation put forward by our expert representative, the court ruled that the sentence in this matter could be suspended. Our client received a sentence of 26 weeks custody suspended for 18 months.