Racially aggravated charges lead to Suspended Sentence

Case study summary

We represented this client from his first arrest and interview through to his eventual sentence.

He faced a high risk of a prison sentence, but we were able to persuade a Magistrates' Court to suspend the sentence in light of his mitigation.

Case study

This client came to as a duty case from the police station. He had been arrested after being seen assaulting two members of staff at a train station and pushing one of them.

Our client accepted immediately that he had done this and that he was heavily drunk at the time. We discussed the circumstances with him and he explained that he had been binge drinking on the night because of his personal circumstances and, while he could not explain his actions, he was deeply remorseful and could not explain why he would have done this.

We continued to represent him during the investigation stage, where we were able to provide support and clarity to him. This was especially important for our client since the investigating officers often failed to arrive for their scheduled interviews and would pass on inconsistent information.

Finally, after a substantial wait, our client was charged with four offences. Two assaults and two racially aggravated public order offences. Due to the fact he was drunk at the time, the offence was committed against those serving a public role, and the racial nature of the offence, our client was at risk of a prison sentence. A further aggravating factor was the presence of a similar, and alcohol related, conviction from his past.

This would have been short but incredibly detrimental to his life and the progress that he had made in rectifying his drinking problem since his arrest.

Our client had not been arrested since the first occasion and had been able to find himself employment in the meantime. He had taken the initiative and addressed his problematic relationship with alcohol and was especially concerned that this would have been done for nothing if he were to spend any length of time in prison.

We drafted detailed and compelling mitigation on his behalf and in court our expert solicitor advocate persuaded the magistrates that our client deserved another chance, and that this would be best served by him receiving a suspended sentence, rather than being sent to prison.

The court was convinced by our arguments and imposed a suspended sentence and community order on our client.

He was overjoyed at the outcome and especially glad to be able to continue the good progress that he had made in moving on from this.