Sexual Assault case against Doctor Dropped before Trial

Case study summary

We represented a junior doctor who was charged with sexually assaulting a woman in a nightclub. The Prosecution were initially determined to take our client to trial, but we continually pressured them to drop the case and the matter was discontinued.

Case study

Our client was a junior doctor who was just about to complete his foundation training when he was wrongly accused of sexual assault. A conviction of this nature would have destroyed the career he had spent many years building.

He had been accused of assaulting a female in a nightclub. He had attended the nightclub with friends and spent most of the evening socialising with them. However, when he tried to leave, he was arrested by the police after it emerged that a woman in the club had alleged that he had touched her inappropriately.

Having never been in the situation before and knowing that this was something he had not done, he did not think he needed a lawyer and went into the police interview unrepresented. He answered all of the police questions and stated that this is not something he would ever do. If he had touched someone inappropriately by accident, he would have been devastated. He did admit that his memory had been seriously limited by the large amount of alcohol he had drunk.

Understandably, our client thought that the right approach was to be open with the police. However, getting the best result out of a police station investigation is about making the correct tactical decisions at the right time. It was only after he was released on bail that our client realised the seriousness of the situation and contacted our specialist criminal defence lawyers.

Our lawyers were able to liaise with the police and obtain an update on the case; it emerged that the woman who made the complaint did not want this to go any further. However, the police were still going to ask the Crown Prosecution Service to charge our client. Therefore, we put together a detailed letter of representations, highlighting the weaknesses in the evidence and suggesting that it was not in the public interest for this to go any further. We accompanied our letter with character references to show the Crown Prosecution Service that it would have been wholly out of character for our client to have committed this offence.

Frustratingly, the Crown Prosecution Service decided to charge our client, even though it was clearly the wrong decision.

This case was then sent to the Crown Court, where we then took a two-stage approach. We prepared to fight this case as a Crown Court Trial whilst increasing the pressure on the Crown Prosecution Service to drop the case.

We also hand-selected an experienced barrister who could negotiate with the prosecution barrister; this meant that pressure was being applied from all angles. Ultimately, the Crown Prosecution Service were forced to drop the case.

Our client was very relieved that his experience of the criminal justice system was over. His name has been cleared and he can return to focusing on his promising career.