Teenagers Accused of Attempted Murder- Case Dropped

Case study summary

Our clients were teenagers visiting their mother over Christmas. They had been accused of attempted murder after an individual was injured at their house. Our expert serious crime lawyers ensured that the investigation was closed.

Case study

Our clients, two teenage brothers visiting their mother over the Christmas period, had been accused of attempted murder after a group of unknown individuals had tried to enter their house and attack their friends.

Having recently entered the UK from overseas, where they lived, our clients had gone to their mother's address and been surprised by friends who had gathered to greet them on their arrival. They, along with their friends, convened in the garage and were enjoying spending time with each other as they had before our clients had moved abroad.

At some point, there had been a knock on the garage door and one of our clients had opened the door to see who was there. At this point, a large group of unknown individuals had entered the garage and began to attack our clients and their friends. At some point, one of these individuals had been stabbed. The group had retreated following this and made their way across the road to a nearby petrol station, where a member of the public had called an ambulance.

The police arrived shortly afterwards and arrested our clients on suspicion of attempted murder. At this point, our firm was not instructed in the case and our clients had requested the duty solicitors to represent them. They had both provided no comment interviews and were released on bail shortly afterwards. Their family, terrified of the implications of this investigation, contacted our specialist serious crime solicitors and instructed us to take on the case.

We quickly retrieved the notes from the previous solicitors and learned that the injured person had actually refused to provide the police with a statement. We realised at this point that the case needed to be handled with great care to ensure that the police were not provided with any additional evidence on their side that could potentially implicate our clients. Subsequently, we arranged multiple calls with the officer in charge of the investigation and were able to glean that a lot of forensic work needed to be completed before a decision could be made.

We pursued the officer cautiously for updates and ensured that our client's family, both in the UK and in the USA, were kept well informed of the situation. In the meantime, we took statements of our own from our clients and obtained references from their friends and family, in order to ensure we were as prepared as possible.

Sometime later and with no real alternative, the police informed us that they had discontinued the investigation and our client's cases were dropped. Our clients were immensely relieved by this news, as were their families.