Client found Not Guilty of Assault after trial

Case study summary

We were approached by our client's father after he became concerned that his son would be convicted after he recieved an assault charge. We prepared his case throughly and instructed an expert advocate to represent him at trial. The result was a Not Guilty Verdict.

Case study

Our client was a young man who had recently graduated University. He was arrested by the police following an allegation that he assaulted a female in a Nightclub. The investigation took six months to reach court and, during this time, our client had been struggling to move on with his life.

When he received his first court date, our client's father contacted our firm to represent him at his trial at the Magistrates' Court. Our client explained that he did not assault this girl, but touched her in a way he thought she would have consented to based on their prior relationship.

We immediately prepared our client's case. We took extensive detail on the client's history with the complainant. As we did this, it became clear that our client was the person that should be believed and not the complainant.

Our client's case was that he had met the complainant a few weeks prior to the incident, whereby they had engaged in consensual intimate contact. We took detailed statements from the client's friends, all of which corroborated our client's version of events.

Our client was represented by our specialist advocate at court, who expertly cross-examined the complainant, leaving no stone unturned. Her evidence was exposed to be vague, unreliable and contradictory. She admitted that she had met our client prior to the incident, something that she did not say in her witness statement.

Our client gave a clearer account in evidence and we called several defence witnesses who agreed with his version of events.

The court had no choice but to acquit our client after trial, allowing him to move forward with his life.