Lorry Driver Avoids Prison after Committing ABH

Case study summary

Our client was a lorry driver who, after struggling with his health, assaulted another road user. We took a sensitive approach, explaining our client's difficulties to the court without taking away from the harm caused. We persuaded the court not to send him to prison.

Case study

We were approached by a lorry driver who was devastated after he had acted wholly out of character and assaulted another road user.

Our client explained that he had always suffered with depression and anxiety, however, this had deteriorated following the death of his son. As his son passed away during the lockdown restrictions, he could not rely on his normal support network and struggled to cope.

On top of this, he was experiencing ongoing physical health issues which were causing him a lot of pain and discomfort. So, after he got into an argument with another road user, he lost his patience. He accepts that he headbutted and then pushed the driver of another car.

Our client was devastated by his actions, he had sought help for his physical and emotional difficulties and had taken a break from driving as he recognised that he posed a risk to others. He had a large amount of personal mitigation and the challenge in this case was to present this in a way that still showed our client was taking full responsibility for his actions.

We instructed an experienced phychiatrist to produce a report explaining our client’s mental difficulties to the court. We ensured that the expert also commented on the steps our client had taken in his own recovery and that he was now in a better position than at the time of the alleged assault. This ensured that the court could be confident our client would not pose a high-risk moving forwards.

We hired an experienced advocate to represent our client in court and they put his background forward in a tactful way. The court were persuaded that this was a one-off incident that followed a series of difficult events in our client's life and passed a suspended sentence. This means that our client will not go to prison unless he breaches the terms of the court order.

After taking an extended break from driving and addressing his physical and mental health problems, our client has now returned to work.