Intimidation or annoyance by violence or otherwise

Offence title:

Intimidation or annoyance by violence or otherwise

Act:

545B Crimes Act (NSW)

Offence:

A person who:

(a)   Does a thing to compel a person to abstain from, or to do, something, which they have a legal right to do or abstain from, or

(b)   in consequence of such other person having done any act which the other person had a legal right to do or having abstained from doing any act which that other person had a legal right to abstain from doing,

wrongfully and without legal authority,

                        i.         uses violence or intimidation towards the other person, their spouse, de facto, child, dependent or injures the person or said connections, or

                       ii.         stalks the person from place to place, or

                      iii.         hides tools, clothes or property owned or used by the person, or deprives or hinders access to the items, or

                       v.         stalks the person with two or more others in a disorderly manner in or through any street, road or public place,

commits an offence.

Penalty:

Imprisonment 2 years, or a fine of 50 penalty units or both.

Summary/Indictable/mixed:

Mixed

Jurisdiction:

Local Court.

How committed:

A woman is not allowed to leave the house without her male partner, for any reason whatsoever.

Important note:

Intimidation means the causing of a reasonable apprehension of injury to a person or to the person’s spouse, de facto partner, child or dependant, or of violence or damage to any person or property and intimidate has a corresponding meaning.

Injury includes any injury to a person in respect of the person’s property, business, occupation, employment, or other source of income, and includes any actionable wrong of any nature.

De facto partner means of another person (whether of the same sex or a different sex) if:

(a)   the person is in a registered relationship or interstate registered relationship with the other person within the meaning of the Relationships Register Act 2010, or

(b)   the person is in a de facto relationship with the other person.