Father Accused of Assaulting his Child - Case Dropped

Case study summary

Our client was a single father and the sole carer for his three children. After an argument, his teenage daughter accused him of slapping her. Our specialist criminal lawyers represented him during the police interview and ensured that the case was dropped.

Case study

Our client was a single father who was dedicated to raising his three children. He was terrified that this case might lead to him losing custody of all of his children.

This case started after our client's teenage daughter, who was at a complicated point in her life, decided she would like to live with other family members. Following an argument, she left the family home and contacted the police. She alleged that our client had held her down on a bed and slapped her, before threatening to her assault her further with a pole.

The client's son had also provided a statement to the police, where he stated that the daughter was keen to move out and she was frustrated at her father for not letting her. The son was concerned that this might have motivated her to contact the police.

Social services had also been involved in the case and arrangements had been made for the daughter to live with other family members. An order had also been put in place to stop the defendant from contacting her.

We were then instructed to represent the client during the interview. Due to the weakness of the evidence in this case, a tactical decision was made for the client to remain silent during the interview. It is always the responsibility of the police to gather sufficient evidence against a client. We analysed the case and it was clear that the statement the police had obtained from the son heavily undermined the account of the daughter. The evidence that the police had was highly limited and just not strong enough for the client to be charged. As such, our client did not make any comment in the police interview.

The police persisted and were keen to charge our client, referring this case to the Crown Prosecution Service for a charging decision. However, the police’s request to charge our client was declined and the case was dropped.

Our client was relieved that he could go back to focusing on the well-being of his two younger children without a criminal case hanging over his head.