Nightmare Neighbour - Can he take my CCTV footage?

[Mylegs]

Would be extremely grateful if anyone knows the law on this. Posting here for traffic.

I have a turret camera trained on a private lane which also has to include my neighbour's front yard. There's no other way to film the lane without including it. The lane belongs to my neighbour's landlord. It happens to be our access lane over which we have to pass.

Footage from the camera is being used in a criminal investigation into harassment (the neighbour and the neighbour's landlord's son have been harassing me and my family). There is a civil injunction against my neighbour which he's breached.

Under the Data regulations, I'm aware that I'm allowed to film because the footage is being used in civil action and a police investigation. We also have to film to show that certain events (allegedly criminal offences committed by us) have not happened as these folks think nothing of making things up and making a statement.

I've received letters from the landlord's son (calling himself the landlord) and the neighbour, demanding all footage is given to them, destroyed and no more filming is carried out. I know that both of them will be shown some of of this footage in a forthcoming police interview and they probably want to see it in advance. In these circumstances, do I have to give them this footage? If not, what should I say?

For the record, I'm not the sort of person who would deliberately antagonise someone by filming their yard. This has been the only way to get down the lane in safety. They knew the camera was there so why they have breached a civil injunction repeatedly and tormented us in full view of it is anyone's guess. Maybe they thought it didn't work in the dark.

And yes, I have posted about this situation before but not this particular question! Thank you.

@Mylegs are you the poster who made water run uphill? If so, I'm sorry to hear this is still ongoing but at least the police are now taking it seriously.

If l recall @k1233 those neighbours owned their house and it was a passageway, not a lane.

Can't recall her username

you shouldn't be filming outside of your boundary firstly even for any civil/court cases / investigations etc you and the police have no right to film land that isn't yours without consent, maybe write to the landlord for consent for the lane but if it goes into the space they are renting eg garden etc you cannot do that

I think Taborlin has just C&P info. They are not laying down the law to you, just passing on info.

@Mylegs are you the poster who made water run uphill?

I don't think so! Whoever that is has my sympathy!

Englishrain Thank you. What a nightmare. You would think it would be a deterrent.

Mally It's a tricky one.

The landlord's son is a perpetrator. This is a somewhat disabled woman with small children on a remote lane, which I'm forced to walk along because there are 18 obstructions preventing me driving my adapted car down. It's been this way for months, in snow, gale force winds and ice. The lane is unlit and potholed. I have had to walk up it in the darkness while listening to men shovelling gravel to increase the height of the ramps to a degree that my husband and children won't be able to get my adapted car over them. I've had to wait in the darkness in front of the car as these men gleefully film, trying to calm my five year old with PTSD over the phone as the wheels spin and the car makes multiple attempts. I've had to tell the fire brigade I can't go and reassure my father with dementia (who gets worse when isolated and subsequently calls them) because it's 5am and I can't get out with waking my nine year old and having my husband drive my car to the end of the lane (involves him driving down twice and transferring the children to the second car to get them to the land as they're psychologist says they must not walk). This would almost certainly bringing on an episode of PTSD induced sleep paralysis for my daughter and I would then probably wake her again on my return as the procedure has to be repeated in reverse. This is all happening over the boundary line and the turret camera films it. The police and civil courts need evidence and a PTSD diagnosis is not evidence, nor is a verbal account or a written diary without video evidence. If I can't film I'm out of options. As a parent I'll do whatever necessary to record harassment that has caused harm to my children in the past. Having a camera keeps them, mostly, at a distance (still uttering loud primitive growling sounds and glaring) which is an improvement and records breaches of the civil injunction (eg erection of multiple high ramps on Christmas Day). Without that footage, we'd be back to square one, especially as the police are happy to believe and investigate false counter allegations of 'easy' offences like theft as that justifies a narrative that we're all as bad as each other (without a scrap of evidence of any sort against us). To be 'helpful' to the police, I have to continually show I wasn't on the lane at a certain time, or wasn't laying rat poison or digging up daffodil bulbs or the ashes of a deceased relative who is apparently buried on the lane (yes, really, people make this up and the police spend time investigating it!) - excellent example of indirect harassment via the police as a result of their failure to look at events in context. I have to show evidence of harassment, then I have to show evidence of my innocence to dodge whatever allegation is made up as a punishment for going to the police. I'd like an alternative course of action but there just isn't one at the present time. A different arm of the police is now taking the harassment more seriously but they wouldn't have done so without this footage. After that I might need to prove my innocence more often. There is a great silence around what people in my position are actually meant to do, as footage is required to make a statement. I don't know if I will eventually have to give the footage to my neighbour but he's welcome to it after the judge and police have done whatever they want to do with it. It's certainly not a home movie we will look back on fondly!