“Silent phone calls and psychiatric harm can constitute criminal assault and battery”
Burstow conducted an eight-month campaign of harassment against a woman, including silent telephone calls, which caused her severe depression requiring psychiatric treatment. Ireland made numerous silent telephone calls to three women, causing them psychiatric harm and requiring medical treatment.
Whether psychiatric injury can constitute 'grievous bodily harm' and 'actual bodily harm' under sections 18, 20 and 47 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, and whether silent telephone calls can constitute assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The House of Lords held that psychiatric injury can constitute both grievous bodily harm and actual bodily harm under the 1861 Act, and that silent telephone calls can amount to assault where they cause the victim to apprehend immediate unlawful violence.
This landmark decision revolutionized assault law by recognizing psychiatric harm as equivalent to physical injury, providing greater protection for victims of stalking and harassment. It aligned criminal law with contemporary medical understanding of mental health conditions.
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OSCOLA Citation
R v Burstow; R v Ireland [1998] AC 147 (HL)
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