No Further Action for Client Seen Punching Man on CCTV

Case study summary

Our client was arrested following an incident in Bolton town centre. He requested us to represent him and following our involvement in his case, the police decided to take no further action and the investigation was discontinued.

Case study

Our client was a young man on a night out in Bolton. There was clear CCTV footage available covering the pub that he was in. An incident outside showed him to clearly punch another man, knocking him to the floor unconscious. Police officers attended and he was arrested at the scene for Section 39 and Section 47 assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Our client requested us to represent him in his interview. He could not remember the incident but accepted that the footage was "black and white." The police were very hostile towards him and indicated that he would likely be charged because "the evidence does not lie." However, it also became clear that the police could not locate the complainant and they did not know what started the altercation between him and our client.

After careful consideration, our client exercised his right to silence and offered no account or defence in his interview. We stayed in contact with the police and asked for regular updates on whether they had found the complainant, and if he was willing to support a prosecution. The police quickly confirmed that they could not and the investigation was discontinued with no further action.

Our client and his mother were delighted about the outcome. He recognised that he had a problem with alcohol and that this had been a real wake up call for him. He was very pleased with our representation.