QLD Overseas Stalking and Harassment Question

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1 July 2021
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Hey there,

If someone in ONT, Canada were to report an individual in Australia for stalking and harassment, to which the police identified the accused, and had a report in progress, would there be any follow up aside from a report being filed? Would there be any contact made to Law Enforcement in Australia? and if so, would the Australian police then follow up, and contact the individual being accused?

Thanks!
 

pbms123

Member
4 June 2021
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Possibly. I can't comment on what processes or what at all Canadian Police do, or whether they would contact Australian Police.

It would obviously require that it meet certain standards of harassment in both (or one) countries to be met. It's somewhat hard to "stalk" someone while in another country. It's obviously possible to harass, but then it comes down to whether or not they deem it serious enough to engage with another country to do something, as it would require both countries to do something I would imagine to actually get a prosecution. What could occur is that that person could be visited by your friendly neighbourhood police and asked not to engage with them or cease whatever it was that they were doing.

The Commonwealth Criminal Code, set out in the schedule to the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth), provides for an offence of ‘using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence’ and ‘using a carriage service to make a threat’. These would capture conduct amounting to harassment, for example, via the internet, including social media, and telephone.

The specifics of the Offence being
474.17 Using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence

(1) A person commits an offence if:

(a) the person uses a carriage service; and

(b) the person does so in a way (whether by the method of use or the content of a communication, or both) that reasonable persons would regard as being, in all the circumstances, menacing, harassing or offensive.

You might question the Commonwealths Jurisdiction and applicability of Australian Law, but as set out in the same act,:
If this section applies to a particular offence, a person does not commit the offence unless:

(a) the conduct constituting the alleged offence occurs:

(i) wholly or partly in Australia; or

(ii) wholly or partly on board an Australian aircraft or an Australian ship; or

(b) the conduct constituting the alleged offence occurs wholly outside Australia and a result of the conduct occurs:

(i) wholly or partly in Australia; or

(ii) wholly or partly on board an Australian aircraft or an Australian ship; or

(c) all of the following conditions are satisfied:

(i) the alleged offence is an ancillary offence;

(ii) the conduct constituting the alleged offence occurs wholly outside Australia;

(iii) the conduct constituting the primary offence to which the ancillary offence relates, or a result of that conduct, occurs, or is intended by the person to occur, wholly or partly in Australia or wholly or partly on board an Australian aircraft or an Australian ship.
And further to that:
If this section applies to a particular offence, a person does not commit the offence if:

(aa) the alleged offence is a primary offence; and

(a) the conduct constituting the alleged offence occurs wholly in a foreign country, but not on board an Australian aircraft or an Australian ship; and

(b) there is not in force in:

(i) the foreign country where the conduct constituting the alleged offence occurs; or

(ii) the part of the foreign country where the conduct constituting the alleged offence occurs;

a law of that foreign country, or a law of that part of that foreign country, that creates an offence that corresponds to the first‑mentioned offence.


Note: A defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to the matters in subsection (3). See subsection 13.3(3).

(4) For the purposes of the application of subsection 13.3(3) to an offence, subsection (3) of this section is taken to be an exception provided by the law creating the offence.

I would argue that the conduct constituting the offence occurred in Australia assuming it was typed here, and sent from a computer or device inside Australia with an Australian IP address, through Australian internet before ending up in Canada. And even if that wasn't satisfied, it can be argued that Canada has laws that create an offence that correspond to the same, namely being from Criminal Code - R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46:
Criminal harassment

  • 264 (1) No person shall, without lawful authority and knowing that another person is harassed or recklessly as to whether the other person is harassed, engage in conduct referred to in subsection (2) that causes that other person reasonably, in all the circumstances, to fear for their safety or the safety of anyone known to them.
  • Prohibited conduct
    (2) The conduct mentioned in subsection (1) consists of
    • (a) repeatedly following from place to place the other person or anyone known to them;
    • (b) repeatedly communicating with, either directly or indirectly, the other person or anyone known to them;
    • (c) besetting or watching the dwelling-house, or place where the other person, or anyone known to them, resides, works, carries on business or happens to be; or
    • (d) engaging in threatening conduct directed at the other person or any member of their family.
  • Punishment
    (3) Every person who contravenes this section is guilty of
    • (a) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years; or
    • (b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.
 

71-year-old woman

Active Member
8 December 2024
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Hi there Inconspicuous, join the ranks of victims at risk. I am a a Queenslander and yet another victim complaining that police do not enforce the criminal code. On idyllic Magnetic Island, where the stats claim crime is low, I have neighbours on all sides who complain police refuse to act on their reports of drug labs and drug dealing. A man that CCTV and a pub full of witnesses claim attempted murder is still on the streets awaiting trial. Police have 90 videos showing two men in their early 40s stalking and threatening me; hard evidence showing these two men falsely accused me of planning to murder them etc... These two men, also neighbours on one side, went before magistrates and police claiming I stalk them and plan to murder them. Zero evidence as I did not do these things, but nothing happens to them although it was perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice to go before a court and police making these false accusations. The two men have convinced others that I deserve to be persecuted and got them to also join in the abuse. they named their wi fi portals MyNeighbourisa Pervert - obviously cyber stalking but nothering happened. I had death threats at 2am from a third man repeating the same insults these two men pour on me and telling me I was dead and would be executed. The local sergeant turned up two days later and said it was a coincidence and he could do nothing. Yet there were several CCTV cameras that must have recorded who the third man was. Two of my neighbours confirmed that they heard the death threats and false accusations. But nothing happened. The two harassing men put up 24 signs overlooking my yard, including seven legible from the street. The signs accused me of exactly what these two men do to me. Their blatant false accusations included "CREEPY PERVERT; CREEPY ROOFTOP PERVERT, PEEPHOLE CREEPY PERVERT, STALKER, ACCOMPLISHED LIAR, CRIMINAL". Police claimed the signs were legal. After my many many complaints of harassment beginning in January 2023, police supplied their evidence portal so I could download hard evidence to substantiate my complaints. Because the police portal is so slow, police took several usb sticks with further evidence showing the two men stalking me. Police have 90 videos of stalking and threats as well as photos of the signs; court records where the two men attempted to get a restraining order against me, emails, texts etc etc. Police told me they could not charge the two men for stalking without charging me for stalking also. The police claimed that by recording the men's threats and abuse etc I was stalking the two men. I said go ahead and charge me, I will continue to make formal complaints that these two men are stalking me. Still no action. One constable even asked me to come in to be cautioned for recording the abuse and told me to stop recording them becasue it was not harassment, but them just "not being great". A police inspector even claimed I was not home when the videos were made and they had been recorded on my CCTV camera. But in all the 90 videos you can see or hear me and I am quite obviously in many different locations videoing on my phone - in my bathroom for instance. Yes the two men listen for me to use my bathroom and call out through my bathroom windows: "evil evil evil f..ing b***h, f.. off, creepy pervert, pedophile, we eat people like you for breakfast; we are ridding the island of you; we are planning to make your death look like suicide ... etc etc etc". They can go for hours. They do all the other usual things stalkers do: blast me with loud music; park their running lawn mower against the fence closest to my bedroom windows at 7am Sunday mornings; throw empty beer cans along our fence boundary and follow me when I go out to stare at me with murderous expressions and, in front of a crowd, loudly call me a pedophile, creepy pervert, murderer etc. Making these horrendous false accusation to a crowd is a harrowing experience as I am none of those things and find such crimes horrific, but a crowd of onlookers would not know this. Police ignore a video showing the two men doing this on the ferry. In conclusion Amberlyn, I do not think we are safe in our homes and our crime statistics are a joke. I know that there are Royal Commissions and inquiries into these things and there have been since the Fiizgerald, but everything remains the same because these commissions and inquiries only make recommendations. There is no mechanism to enforce recommendations, so all the coverage of the investigations and effort in writing submissions give the appearance of something being done when in fact it wastes victim's time and emotional energy. $millions to taxpayers dollars go down the plughole.