Most people have heard of self defence, and use the phrase widely when describing a situation where someone has been assaulted, and the victim of that assault has gone on to assault their attacker.
Does this situation always amount to self defence? The answer is no. Kerry Woollason, Criminal Solicitor, recently represented a client who had been punched in the mouth by his partner in an unprovoked attack. Kerry’s client had punched his partner back, but independent witnesses at the scene described how several seconds had elapsed between the initial assault and the client punching his partner back. Given the delayed reaction of the client, it could be argued that the client punched his partner back in revenge because he was angry at at his partner, and therefore was not acting in self defence.
In this instance, Kerry persuaded the Crown Prosecution Service to drop the charge against her client. It was clearly not in the interests of justice to continue with the prosecution against him on the basis that the police should have been prosecuting the partner instead of the client, but that is was also not in the public interest to prosecute the client in these circumstances, given the likely expense to the public purse.
If you need representation from one of the leading road criminal teams in Lincolnshire, contact us at one of our offices in Lincoln, Boston, Grantham, Sleaford, Spalding and Newark.