Client Accused of Domestic Offences – No Further Action

Case study summary

We represented a client who had been abused by their partner through the relationship. Now that he was trying to leave, his partner started to use the police as another method of control. We put his defence forward in interview and the police agreed to drop the case.

Case study

Our client explained that he had been subject to emotional abuse by his partner throughout a relationship.

He explained that he wanted to become more independent so that he could leave his partner and had secured a job interview in an attempt to begin this process. However, knowing about this, his partner made false allegations of domestic abuse the evening before his interview so that he would be arrested and still be in custody at the time of the interview. The partner had alleged that our client had controlled her and assaulted her. However, her own statement was vague and contradictory whereas our client could give us a detailed account of the manipulation he had suffered.

Our client was terrified of speaking to the police as they had taken a heavy-handed approach to his arrest and had clearly labelled him as the offender and her as the victim. It may have been the case that some element of gender bias came into play.

To protect our client from police interview tactics and to ensure that his defence was put across clearly, we worked with our client to draft a clear and strong statement. This was read out in interview and our client answered no comment to all further questions.

The police were left with no choice but to drop the allegations. Our client has now ended the relationship and is getting support form his family.