Client Charged With Serious Assault Acquitted

Case study summary

We represented this client from his interview to his acquittal at Bolton Crown Court. He was charged with assaulting a man at a family gathering.

We carefully prepared for the trial and were able to secure an acquittal after demonstrating his good nature.

Case study

Our client was charged with a Section 20 Wounding offence. He denied that he was guilty of this and made it clear that he had been acting in self-defence after the complainant became irate at a family gathering over a reference to Elvis Presley having stolen music from the black community. The complainant then started to square up to our client and threaten him before finally attacking without reason. Our client then acted in his own self-defence to stop the complainant.

The complainant alleged that our client had been smoking cannabis, using offensive language, and being a nuisance at the gathering. Our client was shocked by this given that he had not been smoking cannabis and was meeting his girlfriend's family for the first time.

We took statements from others present at the scene who contradicted the complainant's suggestions that our client had been rude, heavily intoxicated, and smoking cannabis. They gave evidence that our client had been charming and personable throughout the night.

We instructed Rachel Cooper, of Lincoln House Chambers, to represent our client and took instructions to enable her to carefully question the complainant. She was also able to bring out the evidence of each of our witnesses and demonstrate to the jury that the prosecution case was not well founded.

The result of our hard work was that the jury concluded our client was not guilty of the offence he was charged with. He was able to return to his life free from any further legal proceedings and allegations from the complainant.