Commentary on Sections Part 1: Provisions for Combatting Crime and Disorder. Local child curfew schemes Section 44: Collective Harrassment
137.Section 44 amends the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 to make it clear that the legal sanctions that apply to a campaign of harassment by an individual against another also apply to a campaign of collective harassment by two or more people. It is an offence under section 2 of that Act to pursue a course of conduct against someone which amounts to harassment and which the person responsible knows or ought to have known amounts to harassment. It is an offence under section 4 to cause another to fear violence by a course of conduct on at least two occasions if the person responsible knows or ought to have known his conduct would cause that fear.
138.Subsection (1) amends section 7 of the 1997 Act, which provides for the interpretation of "conduct" and "course of conduct" in sections 1 to 5, by inserting a new subsection (3A). Paragraph (a) provides that conduct by one person shall be taken, at the time it occurs, also to be conduct by another if it is aided, abetted, counselled or procured by that other person.
139.Paragraph (b) provides that the knowledge and purpose of those who aid, abet, counsel or procure such conduct relate to what was contemplated or reasonably foreseeable at the time of the aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring. This enables knowledge and purpose to be viewed in relation to what was planned or should have been expected at the time of planning.