Links:
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/stalker-jailed-kisses-blowing-following-13-year-old-girl-teenager-bahram-hekmat-london-enfield-a8151846.html
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5254705/Man-followed-schoolgirl-13-jailed-legal-first.html
(I’m including the Daily Mail link because their report states that this happened around 4 pm as the 13-year-old was making her way back home from school, so presumably in school uniform.)
In brief: A 13-year-old girl was waiting at a bus stop when a 43-year-old man tried to entice her into his car. She refused. He continued his harassment by following the bus she got on and parked up when she got off the bus, and he threatened to continue following her. He only drove off when she alerted a member of the public.
He was traced via his car registration number that was captured on the bus CCTV.
A four-day trial at Crown Court, which resulted in a 9-month prison sentence plus restriction orders.
It would have taken a long time for the case to get to the Crown Court, which was bad enough for the girl and her family; but to have to wait it out for four days to see if he was found guilty must have been awful.
Of course this is the kind of behaviour that girls and women have been suffering for, well, ever. Some people complain that CCTV is intrusive; but it’s exactly this kind of case that proves its worth – behave in a pervy way in public, then you can get caught. Although, of course, some men think they behave however they want wherever they are – male privilege, innit?
It’s a groundbreaking conviction because the stalking law was used in this case for a brief episode of stalking, rather than over an extended period of time with many episodes. Providing the conviction stands, i.e. the offender doesn’t succeed in appeal, then it becomes case law, and can be used by the police and Crown Prosecution Service for other similar prosecutions.