Client accused of assault and harassment - Case dropped

Case study summary

We were approached to represent a young university student after he was arrested in relation to allegations of assault, harassment and controlling and coercive behaviour.

After a prolonged and poorly managed police investigation, we persuaded police to take No Further Action.

Case study

Our client came to us after he was arrested by police. He explained to us that he had been accused by his ex-partner of assault, harassment and controlling and coercive behaviour.

We began by making contact with the officer investigating the case, but found that they often failed to respond to us or to provide basic information which we asked for. When we did receive contact from the investigating officer, he appeared to be unwilling to account for the weaknesses in his case and provided inaccurate information.

From the information we were provided, we could see that there was no evidence provided by police which proved any of the allegations against our client.

After months of delays we wrote to the officer's supervisor on behalf of our client to notify them of the poor management of the case.

It later transpired that the complainant in this case was not in support of the investigation and that she felt she had been pressured into going to police by another friend. The investigating officer spoke with her about this, and misunderstood her desire to withdraw her support. He interpreted her requests for the case to end as our client attempting to intimidate her - for which he had no evidence.

Our client was arrested by police and released soon after when senior officers realised the mistake that had been made.

We prepared detailed and thorough representations on behalf of our client, emphasising his denial of all of the allegations made and the complainant's statement that she had been pressured into making the allegations. We also highlighted the poor management of this case by police.

Soon after a new officer was assigned to the case and, after reading our representations, chose to take no further action against our client.

Following this decision, our client was finally able to carry on with his studies at university and move on from the unbearable stress he had felt throughout the case.