# Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act (Northern Ireland) 2021, Section 16: What amounts to the aggravation


(1) For the purposes of section 15, an offence committed by a person (“A”) is aggravated by reason of involving domestic abuse if the three listed conditions are met.
(2) The listed conditions are—
(a) that a reasonable person would consider the commission of the offence by A to be likely to cause another person (“B”) to suffer physical or psychological harm,
(b) that A—
(i) intends the commission of the offence to cause B to suffer physical or psychological harm, or
(ii) is reckless as to whether the commission of the offence causes B to suffer physical or psychological harm, and
(c) that A and B are personally connected to each other at the time.
(3) An offence committed by A can be aggravated by virtue of this section whether or not—
(a) the offence is committed against B, or
(b) the commission of the offence actually causes B to suffer harm of the relevant sort.
(4) Nothing in this section prevents evidence from being led in proceedings for the offence about harm actually suffered by B as a result of A's commission of the offence.
(5) The references in this section to psychological harm include fear, alarm and distress.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nia/2021/2/section/16 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/domestic-abuse-and-civil-proceedings-act-northern-ireland-2021/section-16
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.