(357)  BREACH OF THE PEACE REVISITED – OBJECTIVELY ALARMING CONDUCT

A Court of Five Judges in the High Court of Justiciary has held that the offence of breach of the peace does not require that any person actually be alarmed by the conduct complained of, and that it was for the court to determine objectively whether or not the conduct was genuinely disturbing or alarming.  With regard to breaches of the peace taking place in private there needed to be evidence of a realistic risk that the conduct would be discovered.  The cases before the court involved inter alia protesters at the Faslane nuclear base and in the Scottish Parliament chamber, as well as various ‘neighbourhood’ incidents.   See Jones v Carnegie 2004 GWD 15-325, 4 May 2004.