Mother Accused of Assaulting an Officer - Avoids Prison

Case study summary

Our client pleaded guilty to hitting a police officer. Our thorough preparations during the lead up to her sentence hearing, and strong submissions to the Court on the day, persuaded the Court to impose a community order rather than a prison sentence.

Case study

Our client was a mother who was charged with assaulting an emergency worker, namely a police officer. She found herself in an abusive relationship and, in February 2023, the police were called to her home address due to to domestic incident between her and her partner. They were both drunk and had been arguing late at night. When the police arrived at our client's address, they arrested her partner for breach of the peace. However, our client believed that the police should have arrested her instead, as she started the argument. As our client was trying to explain this to the officers, she hit one of them in the face.

Our client immediately admitted the offence and apologised. She explained that she had not intended to hurt the officer but she accepted that she was drunk, irate and trying to push past the officer to prevent her partner from being arrested.

We represented our client as the duty lawyer at her police interview and she was charged with assaulting an emergency worker for which the maximum sentence is 2 years' imprisonment. She was impressed with our advice and support during the interview and asked us to continue representing her at her Magistrates' Court hearings.

Our client pleaded guilty at the first opportunity and our thorough preparations prior to her sentence hearing included obtaining positive character evidence from our client's daughter, family and friends. She also wrote a letter to the judge explaining her remorse and the fact that she had taken steps to remove herself from what was a toxic and alcohol-fueled relationship. Although our client had no previous convictions, this was a serious offence and there was a real risk of her being sent to prison which would mean her 18-year-old daughter, who had just begun university, would be left alone.

At the court hearing, we were able to use the mitigation documents which we had collected alongside strong submissions from one of our expert assault lawyers to persuade the court to impose a community order rather than a prison sentence.

Our client was relieved and looked forward to receiving support from the probation services to reduce her alcohol intake, improve her future relationships and continue to support her daughter through her studies.