Client Investigated for Assault - No Further Action

Case study summary

Our client was facing the possibility of being charged with causing grievous bodily harm after allegedly pushing his partner which resulted in her dislocating her shoulder. We made successful representations which resulted in the police taking no further action.

Case study

Our client came to us for help after being arrested for assault. If charged, he faced the possibility of being charged with causing grievous bodily harm, contrary to section 18 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. He was accused of pushing his partner which resulted in her suffering a dislocated shoulder. Our client explained that this had been an accident. His partner was not supportive of the police investigation and she simply wanted to put this behind them so she could return to the family home.

The difficulty we had in this case was that our client had admitted to pushing his partner when he called for an ambulance. A further challenge was that the police were continuing with their investigation despite his partner not cooperating with them.

We worked to obtain detailed instructions on our client's relationship with his partner, his background, the day in question, and the harm this continued investigation was causing to not only our client, but his partner as well. Putting all of this together, we produced representations that aimed to convince the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that pursuing a charge in this case was not in the public interest. We urged them to consider the suffering being caused to the family and the fact that our client was a man of good character.

Ultimately, the CPS decided to take no further action. This came as a huge relief to our client who had struggled with his mental health due to the months of waiting he endured. Furthermore, if charged, our client would have likely been faced with a charge of causing grievous bodily harm which would have had serious consequences for him as a prison sentence would have been a real possibility. He was very grateful for all of the work that we did to ensure a positive outcome.