Member

It is therefore curious that our Public Order Act 1986 seeks to criminalise behaviour where words or behaviour lead merely to alarm being caused or being likely to be caused. Everyone remembers the infamous case of the gay horse. In 2005, a drunk Oxford student stopped a mounted police officer and said, “Excuse me, do you realise your horse is gay?” For this, he was charged under Section 5 of the Public Order Act, on the basis that his words were deemed likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress. There were no members of the public around, so the question is, who was likely to be harassed or caused alarm or distress? The horse? Clearly, there is something wrong with that threshold if it can be used in such a ridiculous way. I have to say that this was not Thames Valley Police’s finest moment.