The complexities of defending in high profile Stalking & Harassment Cases

Narita Bahra KC was instructed to defend the first transgender MP facing charges of stalking. The client was between the first and second stages of the investigation, fully ‘passed’ into a trans woman.

NBKC deployed her understanding of the stalking legislation to make successful legal submissions that an incorrect charge had been laid. The Prosecution conceded and offered no evidence on the stalking charge.

Harassment charges were then laid for the same criminality. NBKC successfully negotiated with the Prosecution to limit the scope of what acts could properly be deemed harassment under the legislation. 

Mental Health, Transition, and Vulnerability

Psychiatric evidence adduced confirmed that the client was highly vulnerable, had been diagnosed neuro-diverse and had mental health conditions, as well as having profound emotional and mental difficulties in completing the passing stage of the gender transition process. This stage is often misunderstood. For a trans woman, ‘passing’ marks a crucial turning point. Emotionally and psychologically, it is deemed one of the most intense and destabilising periods of transition, involving the following symptoms: severe anxiety, chronic hypervigilance, emotional dysregulation, including sudden mood swings, panic, and difficulty managing reactions to stress — all intensified by hormonal changes, social isolation, exhaustion and cognitive overload. 

The contents of the messages, which formed the course of conduct alleged to be harassment, were key in demonstrating, as is evidenced in many research studies, that the client like many other trans women in early transition, was at high risk for emotional breakdown due to cumulative stress, hormonal shifts, and societal rejection and when combined with public visibility, the emotional toll being immense.

The evidence and psychiatric reports demonstrated that the client’s emotional response, while inappropriate, was not born of malice, but of prolonged internal pressure and untreated psychological strain and mental health deterioration. The contact with the complainant was not a reflection of who the client is, but of the profound mental and emotional crisis she was navigating at a fragile, high-risk stage of her transition.

A plea was entered on a specific, limited and written basis to a charge of harassment.  

Legal Strategy and Resolution

This case raised the issue of whether a criminal prosecution and/or the Stalking & Harassment legislation was the appropriate route to pursue a vulnerable individual in the client’s circumstances, given the following key considerations: 

(i) Being criminally charged for behaviour during the period of passing may heighten vulnerability, may trigger intense shame, self-loathing or feelings of worthlessness, in an individual already struggling with mental health and in the process of fully transitioning. 

(ii) Highlighting the evidence demonstrating that the alleged harassment stems from mental health symptoms

(iii) Weigh the impact of the proceedings on the defendant’s mental health 

(iv) Consider whether a prosecution is in the public interest

(i) Consideration of whether an out of court police disposal would have been more appropriate and/or pursuing a diversionary route which could have provided sufficient protection for the complainant and still permitted the client to fully out as a trans woman, without adding a criminal prosecution to the list of difficulties and pressures she faced at the most difficult time in her life. 

Reflections on Prosecution and Public Interest

The facts of this case demonstrate how imperative it is that all parties take steps to gain an understanding of the intensified and unique stresses and difficulties a vulnerable high-profile public figure, with neurodivergence, was going through when undergoing a life-changing gender transition to a trans woman. The evidence of pressures on this client extended far beyond the strain of Prosecution due to media exposure, social scrutiny and personal vulnerability. 

This case raised an imperative issue, namely that careful consideration should be applied at the outset by the Police and CPS as to whether a criminal prosecution is the only way forward to protect the complainant, and in the public interest when the defendant is highly vulnerable. 

The case required sensitive handling of international media coverage and publicity.

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