AIBU to be alarmed after a defendant contacted me?

[ShapeofanLonmyforehead]

I was a witness for an incident that took place near my home some months ago. It ended up going to court and although I didn’t attend in person, my statement was provided in court. I was assured it was all anonymous as the person in question is violent.

fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, this individual has written to me from prison (not yet sentenced) offering me money to write to them. The letter is hand written and contains my full name and address. I am absolutely livid that they’ve somehow got my information, I’ve rang the police who sent me a text later on to say it’s a non-reportable crime.. and the witness support agent person emailed to say she’s passed the information on to the case lead, but I’ve heard nothing back in weeks and I just want to know how in the world he got my information and why he’s been allowed to write to me with bribes.

I have two young kids at home, the last thing I want is some POS contacting me.

This is an attempt to pervert the course of justice as well as a GDPR breach. Write to the CPS and to the Chief Constable of the relevant police force and say you are making a formal complaint. You should also consider asking for witness protection as the man has your name and address and has a history of violence. The police should provide this.

Have you reported this to the Information Commissioner? I expect they will take something like this seriously.

You can claim compensation under gdpr. This is really serious too. Dont get fobbed off

I i hope this is taken really seriously!! Awful!

Contact the prison , they will stop his mail coming through. And the police asap.

This is what made me not want to stop to report a crime about ten years ago. I was a
worried my address would be read out in court in the event of me being a witness.

I did jury service two years ago and the witnesses that attended had their address called out too in front of everyone.

So very sorry that you have been let down so badly by the people who you should be able to trust. Absolutely complain and keep on until you get answers. Maybe go to your local police station and refuse to leave until you have some answers and reassurance. I must say that I was always unsure of getting involved and now I never would. It's such a shame for decent people like yourself.

Also contact the prison who should vet all Mail coming in and going out. They need to be aware

100% Agree there is no way this person should be writing to you or any other witnesses.
I’d be very clear that this is causing you stress & that your afraid, of what will happen as & when this person is freed.
whatever you do don’t understate your fears because if you don’t make them clear they won’t act; something has gone very wrong in order for them to get your personal details & that also needs investigating; if the person is found they too need to be prosecuted.
stay strong & good luck xx

If it’s a GDPR breach then the ICO are the people to contact as well.

Agree with this and you should also contact the Information Commissioner (ICO) whose responsibility it is to investigate data breaches. And tell the police you have reported it to the ICO.

I think your name would be on your statement, which would be in the defence file. He shouldn’t have your address but it’s possible he has figured that out from the context. Or it hasn’t been redacted correctly.

This doesn't merit 999 call, surely?

This was a criminal case not civil. The OP won’t have ‘solicitors’ to contact. She was a witness in the CPS (probably - there are other prosecuting agencies) case against the defendant.

I gave a statement as a witness once and I was not happy when the police told me that my name goes on the front page. My surname is not common. I don’t think I’d ever give evidence again tbh, it was stressful going to court three times and I felt that if I was recognised on the street, I could be attacked

When I went through this and took our abuser to Family Court, I had to use a c/o address in case my address was accidentally leaked to our perpetrator via court paperwork or CAFCASS/Social Care reports.

No it hasn’t. This is not witness intimidation. It is a data breach.

It is also not appropriate to call 999 to discuss it. The OP should make a complaint via the CPS who can investigate whether or not they inadvertently passed details to the defence.

Of course if the OP’s address is available in the public domain already then he may have simply tracked her down using her name and a rough location (town or county where the incident took place). Names are provided in court.

@ShapeofanLonmyforehead this is awful I’m so sorry to read this

as you have children I would also contact your local children’s services safeguarding team as they may also be able to provide some help and guidance.

Bit drastic but do you own/rent your house? Would you consider moving?
Not that you should have too.

You could also speak to a solicitor about the data breach as you may be eligible for compensation.

Thank you. Your opening sentence is exactly what I was going to write. I’ve been reading the thread with increasing horror.

It’s one thing not to know something, but to enthusiastically dish out misinformation like ‘GDPR breach’ and ‘it’ll be the defence solicitor’s fault, they’re bent’ is quite another. Terrible.

We have no idea whether there has been any data breach. It's not necessarily difficult to find out someone's address once you have their name and their approximate age.

Report it. The letter could have been stopped by the prison and never reached you.
Do it by email and copy in the Judge, your MP, and P.C.C. Make sure you make it clear that you are copying in the others, “as you are unsure who the most appropriate person is”.
Whoever is responsible will make sure it is dealt with properly as they won’t want to be held responsible for any dereliction.

Is it?

When I went to court for something I was given a pack that basically had all of the evidence the police had put forward. This included two witness statements with full names, licence plate numbers (it was car related) and their statements.

They would have been very easy to find if on the electoral roll.

I also think it's not definitely a data breach - the OP said it happened near het home. If you've got a name and you know which street or streets someone is likely to live in, it wouldn't be difficult to find out the actual address, especially if you don't limit yourself only to legal searches.

Ypu need to alert the police

They have her FULL NAME abd ADDRESS though.

Yes and the FULL NAME will always be given to the defendant in a criminal case unless there is a granted application for anonymity which almost never happens (maybe once every few years in big gangland cases).

It really isn’t hard to track down someone’s address once you have their full name and a general idea of the area where they live - I’ve done it myself with a misdirected parcel that looked expensive.

It’s quite possible nobody has done anything wrong to allow the defendant to get the address. Obviously he shouldn’t have written to the OP but that might be the only inappropriate behaviour (I can’t say crime - we don’t know enough about the letter).

The fact he’s written this late suggests it wasn’t the Prosecution, police or defence who gave him the address - all of the transfer of information will have taken place before his plea was entered, not after conviction.