No Further Action Taken Against Client Accused of ABH

Case study summary

Our client called the police to report a violent confrontation which occurred at his place of work. The police wrongly accused him of being the aggressor and treated him as a suspect. We were able to persuade the police to end their case by directing their attention to the truth.

Case study

Our client had been working at his pub when a severely drunk and unpleasant customer began to threaten him after he was refused service. The customer had started to vomit in the pub and our client politely asked him and his friends to leave but they refused to do so. Our client asked the group to leave for a second time and the customer responded by threatening to assault him and set the pub on fire. The customer and his friends then started to assault our client and other customers. Our client acted in self-defence, and in defence of the people around him, to restrain the customer. Finally, all of the perpetrators were forced out of the pub and our client reported the incident to the police.

The entire incident was caught on CCTV and it was clear that the steps taken by him were necessary and proportionate to stop the complainant from causing any more harm or damage. Despite this, the police asked our client to attend the police station to be interviewed under caution. He instructed our firm to represent him and advise him on the law of self-defence. The law relating to this defence is not always as straightforward as it might initially seem so we carefully considered the case, including the evidence and the intention that our client had at the time of the incident, and advised out client.

It was clear that our client had acted as necessary and we were able to put his defence forward to the police through a carefully written statement. We also directed the police to consider the statement which he had made to the police officers who had attended on the day of the incident. We added further information such as our client's previous experience as a doorman and the security training that he had received to support the fact that he had acted in a proportionate and reasonable way.

We successfully persuaded the police to take no further action. Our client was delighted with the news and grateful to have been heard and understood by the lawyer who had represented him as it was clear that the police had initially ignored him and the honest account he had provided to them.