Page 293 - 6. 2016 Diary 1st half New 26-05-21 No Table

Lord Hutton
My Lords, section 1 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 was enacted to remedy a grave
social problem. In some parts of England, particularly in urban areas, there are vulnerable
people who live in constant fear and distress as a result of the anti-social behaviour of others.
The anti-social behaviour can take different forms and may consist of
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R (McCann) v Manchester Crown Ct (HL)
Lord Hutton
Insults and abuse and threats or assaults or damage to houses by stone throwing or the
painting of graffiti. Those who are victims of such behaviour are often too frightened to be
willing to go into the witness box in criminal proceedings to give evidence against those who
make their lives a misery, because they fear that they will be harassed or intimidated for so
doing.
- The remedy provided by section I of the 1998 Act is to give power to a magistrates’
court to make an order which imposes on the defendant the prohibitions which are necessary
for the purpose of protecting persons in the local area from further anti-social, acts by him.
Such an order will frequently prohibit the defendant from entering a defined area where he
has been particularly troublesome and from using or engaging in any abusive, insulting,
offensive, threatening or intimidating language or behaviour or from threatening or engaging
in violence or damage against any person or property within a somewhat wider area.
- Section 1 (to) provides that if a person does anything which he is prohibited from
doing by an anti-social behaviour order he shall be liable oil summary conviction to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding a specified
amount, or to both, or on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding
five years or to a fine, or to both.
- The remedy given by section 1 has operated effectively because the courts have held
that proceedings under section 1 are civil proceedings and not criminal proceedings.
Therefore, it has not been necessary for those who allege that they have suffered as a result of
anti-social behaviour on the part of the defendant to go into the witness box to give evidence
against him, because hearsay evidence can be given of their complaints and allegations
pursuant to section 1 of the Civil Evidence Act 1995 which provides that in civil proceedings
evidence shall not be excluded on the ground that it is hearsay.
- It is rulings that applications for anti-social behaviour orders are civil proceedings
which are challenged by the defendants in these appeals. They submit that both under
domestic law and under the jurisprudence of the European Convention for the Protection of
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) the proceedings against them
under section 1 of the 1998 Act are criminal proceedings and constitute criminal charges
against them so that hearsay evidence is not admissible. They contend in their submissions in
reliance on the Convention that the use of hearsay evidence against them violates their
human rights.
The facts of the present cases and the proceedings before the magistrates and on appeal have
been fully set out in the speeches of my noble and learned friends Lord Steyn and Lord Hope
of Craighead. I gratefully adopt their accounts and I therefore turn to consider the
submissions advanced on behalf of the defendants.
Domestic law
Counsel for the defendants submitted that an application for an antisocial behaviour order is a
criminal proceeding because the complaint against the defendant alleges anti-social behaviour