Using the protection from Harassment Act to silence victims of rape from naming their perpetrators: LW v KCA

Abstract

Increasingly, victims and survivors of gender-based violence are naming their perpetrators in public. However, there has been a backlash against the public naming of perpetrators. Men who have been named as perpetrators are turning to a variety of legal mechanisms in response to the allegations made against them. One such mechanism is the pursuit of protection orders under the Protection from Harassment Act. In the case of LW v KCA, the High Court dealt with the question of whether naming one’s perpetrator in public constituted harassment under the Act. The Court held that such conduct is not harassment, creating seminal development in the jurisprudence regarding gender-based violence.