Client accused of ABH - Not Guilty Verdict

Case study summary

Our client was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm after acting in self-defence to protect his family from a violent neighbour. We were successful in arguing our client acted in self-defence.

Case study

Our client lived with his partner and two young children. For nearly a year, they were subjected to a campaign of abuse both verbal and physical, with the abuse being predominantly of a racist and homophobic nature. This abuse was from their neighbours who did everything they could to make our client's life miserable.

Our client had made a number of reports to the police regarding assaults, hate crimes and verbal abuse that they had suffered at the hands of their neighbours. Unfortunately none of these were addressed and therefore our client's family were left feeling helpless.

After our client was charged with ABH for defending their family, we knew that we had to obtain as much information from the police regarding previous reports in order to illustrate the ongoing pattern of abuse our client had faced. This was difficult as the police were not entirely cooperative but nevertheless we remained persistent until we received everything we needed.

We spent months getting everything ready for trial and made sure that we were prepared for anything that came our way. At trial, our expert lawyer's cross-examination was thorough and efficient and he was able to extract the responses required from the complainant whilst staying professional and composed. During our defence submissions, we asserted that our client acted in self-defence in order to protect himself and his family, and that this was a proportionate response to he danger he found himself in.

The magistrates only needed a short amount of time to deliberate and returned with a not-guilty verdict for our client. They stated that our client was not the aggressor in this situation but it was in fact the complainant. They accepted our client's defence and then he was free to leave.

The effect this result had on our client and his family was overwhelming and extremely emotional. After months of waiting and hoping that he would be believed our client was relieved to have been heard and understood, and happy that he and his family could resume their normal family life.