Army employee found Not Guilty of GBH at Crown Court

Case study summary

Our client was security trainer, working as a door supervisor when he was attacked by a drunk man. CCTV presented a misleading picture of what happened. We spent many hours together with him so could perform well in court. The jury found him Not Guilty.

Case study

Our client was a security trainer. He was particualrly vulnerable to being convicted as a criminal record for assault would have put his career in jeopardy. He had been working as a door supervisor when he was attacked by a drunk man. CCTV presented a misleading picture of what happened. We spent many hours together with him so could perform well in court. The jury found him Not Guilty.

We represented a man who was prosecuted at Winchester Crown Court for causing Grievous Bodily Harm (Section 20 GBH). He was a family man with three young children, emplyed mainly by the Ministry of Defence training soldiers in the UK and abroad. He did some work in the hospitality industry in the security field.

On this occasion he had been working in a nightclub when a man began to urinate on the floor, throwing bottles at the client when asked to stop. Our client hit him once, cleanly to the jaw. Unfortunately, the man hit his head on the sink as he fell, and broke his jaw.

The CCTV sadly did not clearly show the bottles being thrown at our client, which was a problem because it made it look like our client was the attacker. So that we understood and were able to explain to the jury more effectively what had happened, we went through the CCTV with the client dozens of times, breaking down each section second by second, working out what was happening at each precise moment, and then preparing a chronology for the barrister and the court. This way the self defence argument that the police and CPS had refused to accept at the police interview stage was much more difficult to ignore.

The case still went to trial, however, but our obnsessive preparation made the difference, and our client was found not guilty by a unanimous verdict.

As a result his career as a secuirty specialist was saved, and he and his family were very relieved that the ordeal was over.