The Court of Appeal has upheld Elvis Aliphon’s harassment conviction arising from a campaign of unwanted contact with a former partner in Dublin, while suspending the remaining portion of his prison sentence for related assault and theft offences.
Aliphon and the complainant, Meenakshi Bhoyrub, are Mauritian nationals. After their relationship ended, Bhoyrub began seeing another man in September 2009. Evidence at trial was that Aliphon then appeared at her college and workplace, followed her on bus journeys, contacted her and people close to her, and sent letters professing his love.
Bhoyrub complained to Gardaí in October 2009. Further incidents followed, including two assaults in Dublin on 18 and 19 December 2009 and the theft of her mobile phone.
Aliphon argued on appeal that the conduct proved at trial was insufficiently serious or persistent to amount to harassment under section 10 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997. He characterised the behaviour as attempts by a rejected former partner to revive the relationship.
The Court of Appeal rejected that argument. It held that the incidents did not have to amount individually to harassment. Considered together over the relevant period, the evidence was capable of showing persistent conduct that seriously interfered with Bhoyrub’s peace and privacy or caused alarm, distress or harm. The jury had also been properly directed on the necessary mental element of the offence.
The harassment conviction was therefore upheld.
The court separately reviewed the sentences for the assaults and theft. It described the assaults as serious and vicious, but noted that Aliphon had no relevant previous convictions and that the effective four-year term was somewhat out of line with comparable cases.
Rather than replacing the sentences entirely, the court suspended from 5 February 2016 the unserved balance, estimated at about four months.