section 5 public order

[gail47]

Can anyone help please.....
Have a friend who to cut along story short, was being harrassed the police issued a harrassment order against perpetrator. he then makes a statement saying she was abusive to him. after him being abusive and admitting driving in front of her car and putting her and her child in harms way, she did in deed in her victim statement say she had said "do not flump with my family again, and she called him scum once. she now finds herself facing an interview and possibly court.
she made a vicitim statement (which the police said she did not have to initially), and was quite distressed when interviewed, she finds her statement to be incorrect and police have been informed and doen nothing.
I have a few questions for you.

1 Can they use her victim statement against her?

2 she informed police her statement was wrong when she received it, nothing has been done.

3 whilst having the harrassment order the harrasser, harrassed her again, she was told by one pc, she was over reacting, she has since iformed a seargeant and an inspector,still nothing has happened.

be very grateful for some legals to get on board

[exdc]

Hi

Your friend (A) made the first complaint of harassment to the police,correct?
At this time police took a witness statement from her

He (B) was served a formal harassment warning from police?

After being served a harassment warning this incident with the car happened ten he (B)makes a statment to the police and your friend is interviewed as a suspect?

[gail47]

yes she made first complaint due to him driving infront of her car nearly causig an accident.
yes he was then served a harrassment order, after she was required to give a victim statement.
after been given the harrassment order he then harrasses her again and the police have done nothing.
the harrasser then makes a statement after being told he could not get a harrassment order on her. The police then say they are to deal with her with a section 5.
she has been told her vcitim statement says she said@ dont f--k with my family and that he was scum, in reply to his abuse when she confronted him regarding the driving offence.

can the police use her victim statement against her? as proof of a section 5

[bednobs]

"she finds her statement to be incorrect" - in other words she was lying (either then or now?)

[gail47]

no catergorically not, she was deeply distressed at the time of taking statement, it is not all of it but she has found it to be recorded incorrectly. she signd the statement but did not read it through because of her distressed state.

[bednobs]

so she did lie, when she signed it as an accurate record of what she said

[exdc]

Hi Gail#

Sorry, i seem to have the sequence of events wrong, but anyway, the quick answer to your question is Yes, a signed (Sec 9) Witness statement can be used in evidence.

[gail47]

exdc, thankyou so much for your answer.

bednobs, it is not that black and white, but thankyou anyway

[gail47]

can I ask is there a likelihood she might go to court, someone has told us cps will probably throw it out! he said, she said etc

[exdc]

This is just MY opinion:

Be absolutely under no illusions, the police are gridlocked with crap, particularly by so called adults constantly making allegations of this and allegations of that, then for the other side to make counter-allegations of this and counter-allegations of that. (most commonly ex-partner domestic issues then nonsense hate crimes i.e racial / homophobic). The paperwork for such nonsense is immense.

Cont:-

[gail47]

i hear what your saying, my friend rang up because of the driving incident, after speaking to her, they told her it was not just a driving offence,( but over the last 8 yrs he has took every oppourtunity to harrass her) and on that basis they said they would persue the harrassment order. this is how she finds herself now.
this is after an inspector tells her he is a constant complainer and needed her to make a statement for a belt & braces approach against him as he knew it would not go away. I cant tell you how utterly devastated she is...

[exdc]

Such allegations come in thick and fast and usually result in numerous complaints about the police which further gridlock the system down. The common motive is usually for one of the parties to 'get one over' on the other and /or if he made a colmplaint then i will make one etc.

Anyway, when such allegations are made they have to be formally recorded and audiited by bureaucrats. This means each allegation has to be investigated to a minimum standard and resolved by the many methods available if the evidence allows.

It appears the police are trying to resolve this issue by using the preventative meassures of a harassment warning on the one and now looking at a sec 5 public order disposal for the other.

[exdc]

Hi Gail

Sorry I am still a little confused by the sequence of the event etc (probably just me).

But are you saying after all these reported incidents the police are now threatening action against your friend (the female?).

[gail47]

thankyou for your explanations...as she has not had any of it explained to her at all by any of the officers so far involved.
A friend of a friend whom is in the system shall we say... says it stinks of bottoms being covered..

[gail47]

yes in deed they are

[exdc]

Ok thanks

So your friend has not been interviewed as a suspect of a public order offence resulting from the contents of her victim statement?, but threatened they will?

[gail47]

after almost 10 weeks after the harrassers statement and the threat of a ticket which never materialised, she broke down on the phone to another officer, distraught at not knowing where she stood, she has now to arrange a date with her solicitor for her to be interviewed as a suspect.

what we really need to know is does she repeat the same things when under caution.
or are they going to bring her victim statement up which i must add is incorrect, which she has told them about on receiving a copy...shes had no response to this.
(she has suffered in her past domestic violience which resulted in a very serious sexual assault,any dealings with the police upset her deeply, hence her being distraught and just wanting to leave station and not being emotionally stable to read her statement, biggest mistake she made was to trust the officer..

[exdc]

Hi Gail

Soory im making a real mess of this. Sorry

Ok If your friend is using the

[gail47]

sorry last answer did not come through....

[exdc]

I will try again,

Ok, A solicitor will be allowed access to all the facts of the case and be in the best position to advise your friend. It seems to me that the police are clutching at straws to threaten legal action for a Sec 5 POA offence on the contents of a signed statement in such circumstances and it would be a shock to me if they were to do this.

There are a few statutory defences to Sec 5 offence which the solicitor will inform your friend of and may be able to argue on one of those defences. The issues regarding the statement and what to say in ANY formal interview under caution, again, should be discussed with the solicitor.

[gail47]

Thank you so very much for your help..
She is to speak to her solicitor tomorrow i think, will let her know all we have discussed.
Indeed they do intend to just that, hoping cps with full facts will throw it out.
once again thankyou and for now i bid you a goodnight x