Civil Harassment of Mental Health Sufferer (Disabled Person) by the Police

Hounded_out

Before I post, I need to say that the following post may at first sight appear to be rather far fetched or bizarre, but it is genuine. For simplicity and for reasons of confidentiality some names, locations and detail have been withheld.

A lady I see from time to time at a mental health hub (who I will refer to hereinafter as informant 1) had reported some suspected criminal wrongdoing to the Police. A number of her friends, who do not have mental health impairments, have also made similar reports, inc a male who for ease can be referred to as informant 2.

All this happened, i.e. the reporting of the alleged criminal wrongdoing, about 4 months ago.

When my friend with the mental health impairment (she suffers from depression and generalised anxiety stress disorder- GASD) was 'interviewed' by Police response officers they basically told her to back off and that they would do their job and that she had no need to further give any more 'intelligence' to the Police. They said 'everything was in hand'. Anyhow, it turns out that although a crime had been carried out, the Police elected to not refer the matter to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). To avoid this thread getting sidetracked there is no purpose explaining the crime or how my friend came to know that a crime had in fact been committed or how she knew that the Police had decided to take no further action. It is, however, worth noting that she knew a crime had been committed via confirmation given by another statutory 'enforcement body, who had placed the matter in the hands of the Police for 'action'.

In the past three weeks there have been other reports of yet more alleged criminal wrongdoing by the same suspects and my friend and Informant 2 reported this as further intelligence to the Police. One week thereafter informant 2 was threatened by an unknown person via a withheld telephone call and told to 'back off'. As is only right and proper informant 1 then reported this disturbing and unexpected incident c/o informant 2 to the Police.

The Police then interviewed informant 2 re the above 'threat' and they did not seem too concerned. The Police then 'advised' informant 2 that informant 1 is unwell and is not 'right in the head' and that he should have nothing more to do with informant 1 and should stay away from reporting, or becoming further involved with reporting allegations of criminal wrongdoing against the aforementioned suspects as 'everything is in hand' and the file had in any event now been closed.

Informant 1 has for some time been rightfully upset about what had been said about her and the Police's apparent poor conduct and there apparent inability to rigorously investigate the alleged crime. She therefore made a complaint to the Police and late last week received a call from a member of the force's Professional Standards Team (PST). I overheard the conversation that ensued between my friend (informant 1) and PST. Thankfully, the PST member took my friend's concerns re police misconduct (well at least in respect of how the so called response officers had been rude to her etc) seriously and PST said they would immediately instigate an investigation into apparent misconduct in respect of my disabled friend and also into how the allegations against the suspects had been carried out and/or conveniently filed away by the response/ investigating officers as requiring 'no further action'.

Yesterday, informant 2 received an unexpected visit from two police officers at his house. They told him that informant 1 is a schizophrenic (which is 100% untrue) and that he should have nothing more to do with her.

This I sense is now starting to sound very much like civil harassment by the Police against my friend, i.e, informant 1. In the extreme there may an argument to say that the police's conduct or action may amount to a disability hate crime against informant 1. She is within her rights to report a suspected crime and is also entitled to make a complaint about how the Police have been undertaking their duties in an arguably inappropriate and unprofessional manner. It is surely not right for her to be labelled as a trouble causer and worse still to be mis-labelled as being a schizophrenic, which she most definitely is not. I have in recent times been with her to see her GP and psychiatrist. As said above she from time to time suffers from depression and GASD, no more, no less. The Police have no right to mis-label mental health sufferers and do not possess the appropriate medical qualification to label a person as a schizophrenic, which is of course a particularly serious, and on occasions, acute mental impairment.

Harassment can be both a criminal and a civil offence, but obviously civil harassment is a good first course of action and can of course be far easier to prove. A helpful summary of harassment law is shown in the weblink below:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/taking-action-about-discrimination/taking-action-about-harassment/

So my question. Has anyone ever heard of a member of the public taking the Police (yes, the Police!) to court for action amounting to civil harassment contrary to the 1997 Protection from Harassment Act ? I believe my friend has a case and some convincing arguments and credible evidence which includes tape recordings (made by informant 2) of the harassing, humiliating, demeaning, malicious and inaccurate words said to informant 2 by the Police in respect of my friend, informant 1.

I will also be contacting the excellent Equality Advisory and Support Service who can offer general guidance in relation to disability discrimination/ harassment under the Equality Act 2010.

By the way I am not anti-Police, and nor is informant 1.

[Deleted User]

I'm afraid this isn't the right forum and perhaps a BG would move it to one(if one exists?).
I found it very hard to follow but could only suggest that they get advice from CAB or legal advice.
Or have they made an official complaint to the Chief superintendent of said police force?
I did find this on google
https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/complaints-and-appeals/make-complaint

Hounded_out

Very hard to follow - apologies; if you need clarification, just ask.

Re CAB, already doing so. Re official complaints - apparently the police, police themselves, and rarely (if ever) uphold accusations of misconduct made against the Police by members of the public.

GotToChange

I can't be of any help, but it does sound like a rotten situation to be in - and I say this because I CAN follow what you are saying. I hope that you can get some sensible (and sensitive) responses, although I suspect this forum may not be the best place (I am trying to think of somewhere that might be ---- Digital Spy/Advice comes to mind, although there are some troublemakers on there......)

dippy3103

Without knowing what the allegation is, the evidence that you have etc it’s hard to comment. As regards the harassment allegation, no one could possibly advise you without being privy to the details. Furthermore, any such advice should come from a qualified legal adviser with experience of such matters. Do not take advice from well meaning strangers on the internet as there is no way of knowing if their advice is sound or not.
The IPCC can investigate allegations of wrongdoings by police officers- though you don’t say if this senior officer was acting as a police officer or was off duty when the alleged offences occurred.

Hounded_out

Thx for replies to date.

I have amended the post very slightly to hopefully help members focus on the question I raised, namely - "Has anyone ever heard of a member of the public taking the Police (yes, the Police!) to court for action amounting to civil harassment contrary to the 1997 Protection from Harassment Act ? I believe my friend has a case and some convincing arguments and credible evidence which includes tape recordings (made by informant 2) of the harassing, humiliating, demeaning, malicious and inaccurate words said to informant 2 by the Police in respect of my friend, informant 1."

Yes I accept that my friend may need legal advice. That is in hand. I am just interested to learn whether any member has ever comes across this unfortunate series of events or anything similar.

As for making a Police complaint I myself have had experience with this. The Police, police themselves and their complaint investigations (when it suits them) go through the motions, but are no more than a whitewash. Further, there is no truly independent body to oversee what they do - the IoPC (formerly the IPPC) talk the talk, but do not walk the walk.

As I said I am not anti-Police, but I am starting to lose trust and confidence in them.