Threatening Behaviour

[Gezzer07]

I have recently become aware that a member of my family made violent and harrasing threats to one of my parents around about 40 years ago.
If i can get sufficient proof, would there be a case to answer in law?
Thanks

[jno]

I think about 6 months is the usual limitation for court actions, though someone else may know better.

[Peter Pedant]

No ! Leave it alone for chrissakes !

A lot of us watch the current farrago over historical abuse and dont shout at the tel -" yeah ! yeah ! more - many more - the causes of justice are being rightly served."


My late father in the seventies said of war crimes trials then - that he didnt think witnesses were credible after thirty years, because altho he had served five years in the POW camps he wasnt sure what he had said to whom and where ( they were marched around so much ).

[Buenchico]

Six months is the time limit for 'laying information' in respect of 'summary only' offences. (i.e. offences which can only be dealt with by Magistrates Courts, not by Crown Courts). Whether that limitation would apply here would depend upon the exact nature of any charges which might be considered (which would have to be made under the laws which applied 40 years ago when 'harassment' wasn't a specific offence).

However I would think that the chances of either the police or the Crown Prosecution Service wishing to pursue the matter after such a long period of time are effectively nil.

[FredPuli43]

What kind of threats? Threats to kill, intending that the person would fear that they would be killed? That was an offence forty years ago, since 1861, in fact. Anything less is out of time for prosecution. And no prosecutor is going to think it worth prosecuting, even so. Even if you had the evidence, that evidence not being used before calls for an explanation, live witnesses, including the defendant, are not likely to have good or reliable memory of the events, and it would not be seen as a case which it is in the public interest to prosecute even in the unlikely event that the chances of a guilty verdict were sufficiently high ( a prima facie case is not adequate; more is needed).

No chance.