31 January 2008
R v Gowan [2007] EWCA (Crim) 1360, (2008) 172 JP 1
The defendant was convicted of threatening to kill his wife. The judge made an ASBO prohibiting him from having any contact with the complainant or going within 200m of the house where she lived, the terms of the order to be suspended until the defendant was released from custody.
HELD Section 1C(2) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 is directed at protecting members of the general public from an offender’s conduct and could not be used to protect a wife with whom an offender had been and would in the future be cohabiting— since she would be in the same household as the offender. The judge therefore had no power to make the order.
