Assault of a Police Officer - Client Avoids Prison

Case study summary

Our client was found guilty of assaulting and harassing two police officers. He was struggling with his mental health at the time of the offending and a prison sentence would have only made this worse. Our expert representation at court avoided this outcome.

Case study

Our client instructed us after he was charged with assaulting a police officer and harassing another. He was arrested for being drunk and disorderly and, whilst in police custody, he was accused of racially abusing one police officer and assaulting another.

After taking the time to build a relationship with our client, he confided in us about his mental health struggles and explained that, one the night of the allegation, he had attempted to take his own life by overdosing. Fortunately, his attempt to end his life was not successful but the effect of the overdose was that he could not remember the events which followed his arrest.

Following a magistrates' court trial, our client was found guilty and was due to be sentenced. He had already served time in prison for an unrelated matter and the thought of returning there was worsening his already fragile mental state. We prepared thoroughly for our client's sentence hearing to avoid this outcome.

One of our experienced court advocates attended the sentence hearing and presented strong and persuasive mitigation to the court, which resulted in our client receiving a community order which required him to complete a small amount of unpaid work and pay minor compensation costs. He was very happy with this result.