Harassment Act 1997

4 Meaning of specified act

• (1) For the purposes of this Act, a specified act, in relation to a person, means any of the following acts:

  • (a) watching, loitering near, or preventing or hindering access to or from, that person's place of residence, business, employment, or any other place that the person frequents for any purpose:

  • (b) following, stopping, or accosting that person:

  • (c) entering, or interfering with, property in that person's possession:

  • (d) making contact with that person (whether by telephone, correspondence, or in any other way):

  • (e) giving offensive material to that person, or leaving it where it will be found by, given to, or brought to the attention of, that person:

  • (f) acting in any other way—

    • (i) that causes that person (person A) to fear for his or her safety; and

    • (ii) that would cause a reasonable person in person A's particular circumstances to fear for his or her safety.

  (2) To avoid any doubt, subsection (1)(f) includes the situation where—

  • (a) a person acts in a particular way; and

  • (b) the act is done in relation to a person (person B) in circumstances in which the act is to be regarded, in accordance with section 5(b), as done to another person (person A); and

  • (c) acting in that way—

    • (i) causes person A to fear for his or her safety; and

    • (ii) would cause a reasonable person in person A's particular circumstances to fear for his or her safety,—

    whether or not acting in that way causes or is likely to cause person B to fear for person B's safety.

  (3) Subsection (2) does not limit the generality of subsection (1)(f).