At Surmount Investigations we provide a comprehensive and bespoke support package to those who are suffering harassment in a multitude of different forms, which you can read more about here.

The most common type of support we offer to clients for this service relates to people who have exited a relationship and the ex-partner is causing them distress or in other respects a person has rejected someone’s affections and this person has turned nasty towards them as a result.

However, new changes in the law now reflect an acknowledgement that harassment, alarm and distress can occur to an individual within a relationship and legislation has now been expanded to define a whole raft of behaviours by your spouse or partner as a criminal act.

These behaviours are: 

 

1. Restricting access to finances

If your spouse or partner controls the money/accounts in your relationship and defines what they think you are entitled to access or live of, they may now be committing a criminal offence.

2. Putting you down

Cute ‘in-joke’ relationship nicknames are one thing but if your other half repeatedly mocks your appearance, mannerisms or behaviour after you have asked them not to, this is no longer acceptable.

3. Stopping a partner from seeing friends or family

Isolating you from your friends or family – whether that be restricting your physical access to them, blocking their calls, deleting their texts or purposefully preventing you from corresponding with them – is now an illegal act.

4. Being extremely jealous

The new legislative changes now cover behaviours in which a spouse or partner is unnecessarily and persistently jealous and accusatory of your fidelity.

5. Forcing you to obey their rules

The only ‘rules’ that should exist within any relationship are the clearly defined and mutually agreed ‘rules’ you and your partner create together as your relationship forms. If they create ‘regulations’ that you don’t agree to but they force you to follow regardless then this is a crime.

6. Controlling what you wear

The Crown Prosecution Service are very clear that no spouse or partner should have “control” over you or the parameters of your relationship. This includes dictating what you wear, where you go, who you see, etc.

7. Sharing sexually explicit images

New laws in relation to so-called ‘revenge porn’ now make it illegal for someone to share intimate photographs of you with anyone, online or otherwise. This is more clearly defined now to include a current spouse or partner simply showing/sharing personal photos of you to their friends without there being nefarious intent behind it.

8. Intimidating or making you fear them

It is a given that your spouse or partner cannot assault you but new legislative changes extend as far as them not being able to make you so much as fear an assault could occur or using threats or acts to intimidate you into doing what they want.

9. Threatening to reveal private things about you

A relationship is based on the fundamental principles of trust and respect as well as love. Your spouse or partner is therefore possibly the number one person to be trusted with highly personal information about you. Should they make repeated/several threats to reveal personal and private information about you in order to get you to do what they want, this is now an offence.

10. Putting tracking devices on your phone

Apps or spyware like ‘Find A Friend’ are often activated by spouses or partners without the phone’s owner even knowing its been done, thus creating a free and effective ‘tracking device’ for them to know where the person is going or where they are at a given time. Doing this or installing any type of app or software to a person’s phone, computer, tablet, etc. is now illegal.

 

Getting a spouse or partner prosecuted or formally warned for any of the above now illegal acts will require very clear and unarguable documented evidence. This is something we can help you gather and put together in a manner sufficient for any solicitor, police officer or court to take action.

If you are in a relationship and suffering from any of the above behaviours from your current spouse or partner, contact us TODAY to arrange a free, no obligation consultation and see how we can be of assistance to you.