Anti-Social Behaviour Orders—Criminal Penalties or Civil Injunctions?

Extract

In R. (McCann and others) v. Crown Court at Manchester and another, Clingham v. Kensington and Chelsea Royal London Borough Council [2002] UKHL 39, [2002] 3 W.L.R. 1313 the House of Lords, dismissing the defendants appeals, unanimously held that the application for an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) under section 1 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 was civil and not criminal in nature. Therefore the rule against the admissibility of hearsay evidence in criminal proceedings (which can arguably also be inferred from the provision on examination of witnesses in Article 6(3)(d) of the European Convention on Human Rights) did not apply; however, the heightened civil standard of proof, indistinguishable from the criminal standard of proof, would nevertheless be required.