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Is harassment not an offence?

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Regdragon
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Is harassment not an offence?

#48667

Postby Regdragon » April 25th, 2017, 9:43 pm

I'd be grateful for any advice on this problem for a friend.

My friend's partner is Polish and has lived in the UK since 2003. She has had dual nationality for eight years. They have a four year old son together. In 2003 she left a violent and abusive relationship with an Egyptian national working in Poland and came to the UK with a baby daughter from that relationship who was aged around 2 at the time. The Egyptian - I'll just call him "E" - has since gained EU citizenship unlawfully (by telling a court in Warsaw he was still living with her and their daughter.)

She was granted custody of their daughter in the divorce proceedings, finally conducted in Poland last year. From 2003 to 2011, E was never interested in his daughter but now thinks he should get custody of the child, now 16, however she told the Divorce hearing last year she doesn't know him and doesn't want to know him. In contesting this, E even told the same Polish court he would care for my friend's son too. To me this last point makes him seem insane but my friend's partner thinks this was only said to upset his partner. They are obviously very concerned for both the children's safety.

The Polish court granted custody to the mother but has not deterred E who has twice visited the UK looking for them - twice that they know of anyway. Last time was just a couple of weeks ago at Easter. E had somehow discovered their previous UK address but they moved a year ago and at Easter he was trying to find out where, by knocking on doors around their old address. One of their old neighbours unthinkingly told E which Estate Agent they had used for the house sale and he then made two attempts to get their new address from the Agent. My friend had thought about that and warned the Estate Agent some time ago. The Agent said they would never reveal the new address anyway as a matter of client confidentiality but E is very persistent. On his last visit to the Agency, E had said he had a list of local schools which he would now contact as he wasn't given their new address.

Due to the upset caused on one other known visit to the UK the police were involved and also the UK Border agency were informed. As a result of this the police are now advised if he enters the UK and this works well, with the local police informing my friend as soon as he came into the country this time. Obviously EU citizenship now gives E free access to the UK but as it was obtained unlawfully my friend's partner is now going to try and get this revoked through the Polish court.

Beyond this "warning off" role, and staying in touch, the UK police say they can do nothing until an offence is committed. At Easter, as soon as they were made aware by the police of E's arrival and departure date, my friend took the family away on a holiday break.

This is obviously a source of constant worry and causing them serious stress and cost, Polish court costs and travel especially. Is there not an offence of harassment or threatening behaviour being committed already? Is this not sufficient for a restraining order? Also, can I ask whether, when you apply for a restraining order, you have to declare your address - or can that be kept confidential in circumstances such as these.

Thanks for taking time to read this far and many thanks in advance for any advice.

Regards
RD

tango2082
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Re: Is harassment not an offence?

#48958

Postby tango2082 » April 26th, 2017, 6:33 pm

Hi,

Harassment is a course of conduct against an individual, because he doesn't know where she is and is making enquiries about her whereabouts, I think it'd be a bit of a stretch in the eyes of a court that this is a course of conduct directly against her, I couldn't say for certain, but I don't think it's direct enough.

She can apply for a civil restraining order that doesn't require any criminal action to implement. The best place to start with this is the National Centre for Domestic Violence (http://www.ncdv.org.uk/) They are a charity who specialise in getting civil injunctions for domestic abuse victims. I couldn't answer about whether the address is kept secret in civil cases (They are in criminal) however it couldn't hurt for your friend to have a conversation with them and get some advice.

Regards
Tango

Regdragon
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Re: Is harassment not an offence?

#49276

Postby Regdragon » April 27th, 2017, 7:05 pm

Many thanks Tango - very much appreciated. I'll pass that on.

Regards

RD


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