Charged with ABH and Resisting arrest

[JJ2COOL]

Hi, Basically i was on a night out down town. there was a lad who saw his ex misses out with her new partner, he was causin alot of trouble and looking for a fight. me being an idiot was drunk and fooling around with my friend (probably showing off a bit). my mate said he would crouch down behind this lad if i pushed him over. (we were just fooling around and both of us acting out of character) did this. the lad then got up and started swinging loads of punches at my mate. the lad was with a load of his friends and i thought they were all going to attack my friend. ive then ran over to stop them fighting and hit this lad once knocking him to the ground (his nose broke) i was then arrested.

The copper who arrested me has said that his saw the incident and that i hit the lad loads of times, the lad went to the ground and i continued to hit him and resisted arrest. this definalty didnt happen, like i said i hit him once and was arrested, didnt even argue with the coppers and they walked me to their vehicle.

at the police station i gave a no comment interview, but handed in a statement mentioning everything apart from the fact that i was fooling around and pushed the lad.in the statement i asked them to get CCTV as i denie what the copper had said and CCTV will prove this.

Its now been sent to crown court. as far as im aware they have still not got the CCTV when the area it happened is right outside a night club and fully covered by CCTV.

this is my first offence, I am being chraged with ABH and resisting arrest. i feel bad for whats happened but the lad was attacking my friend. i am pleading not guilty and think this is going to end up going to trail.

I am a sports coach and work in primary schools and community centres so being charged will affect my work. this has already affected me as i couldnt afford court costs/solicitor fees so have knocked alot of my work on the head and now claim job seekers.

does anyone have any idea of how serious this is and if found guilty am i look at jail time ?

many thanks for ur help

21:41 Mon 09th Apr 2012

[boxtops]

what does your brief say? Even if you are hard up, you would be allocated duty solicitor.

[Smowball]

Why did you do a "no comment" interview??
Why would a police officer say you hit the guy loads of times when you didnt??

[Segilla]

Plead guilty so as to stop wasting public money and don't do it again.

[JJ2COOL]

I had duty solicitor. Been to court twice now but havnt actually spoken to my solicitor about what's going to happen. I have rang the solicitor office about 4 or 5 times to try and speak with him and to arrange an appointment. But just keep getting told his busy and will ring bk.

I was advised to give a no comment interview as I didn't want to mention anything about fooling around and pushing the lad over. Also didn't want to mention my friends name or asked about him. Not sure why officer is making it up or maybe he's just seen the situation wrong.

All I'm after is a fair trial. And think the best way is being judged by 12 members of the public. I've paid a lot of tax previously so don't see why wasting public money would be a reason to plead guilty.

Many thanks

[Segilla]

Irresponsible drunkards are costing those who try to behave themsleves huge amounts of money partly because the Law fails to deal with such, and criminal behaviour, severely enough to deter it - as was th case when I was young.

Until the consequences of what happens to people such as yourself becomes clearly evident the taxpayer has to foot the bill. Why should I have to pay for your folly?

I know this sounds harsh but, e.g., in my day anyone who stole just a shilling out of the till had little chance of a decent job for the rest of their lives - and that was a real deterrent. And I wish that sort of attitude would return as there was not so much crime and drunkenness going on.

[EDDIE51]

You ARE guilty you admit hitting the other person.
Whatever you do don't try pleading not guilty, you WILL end up in jail if you do.
ABH is normally a magistrates court only offence , but your case has gone to Crown so either you have already pleaded not guilty and asked for a jury trial or the magistrates think it is too serious for them and have referred it to Crown.
If you had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity this would have been over by now ABH at a magistrates court is extremely unlikely to get a jail sentence even more unlikely with a guilty plea.
But you are now facing Crown court and a jail term. You need to change your plea to guilty ASAP and hope you can still get out of this without a prison sentence.
You have almost certainly ruined your career, as to work with children you need an enhanced CRB disclosure and yours will show a conviction for violence.
Even if by some chance you did get a not guilty verdict, an enchanced disclosure is going to show that you were arrested and charged for a violent offence.
As I said now that this has gone to Crown you are looking at a jail term.

[ojread2]

this might help
http://www.inbrief.co...s/assualt-gbh-abh.htm
TBH if you knew this guy was 'spoiling for a fight' and you then provoked him into one, you all deserve what ever you do get in court

[boxtops]

I've read your OP again - the lad spoiling for a fight was actually nothing to do with either of you, you could have walked away. Instead you joined in with your mate in an incident which shouldn't have affected you at all, and it looks as if you are going to pay for it.

It's too late to say it now, but you should have thought about your job before you got involved. Enhanced CRB checks will throw up this sort of offence. You are already wasting public money by giving up a good job with prospects (which you are unlikely to get back) and going onto benefits.

I think you were poorly advised to make no comment - now the case has escalated. Can anyone else help you to make contact with your solicitor?

[JJ2COOL]

I don't no. I will try and contact my solicitor again this week. And see what he says. I've even tried changing solicitor but was told I couldn't as it's too far into the case and I would have to have a really good reason to. I havnt pleaded yet. My next hearing is a plea and case management hearing so I'll have to see what happens then. I havnt even seen what evidence they have yet so can't really plea untill I see that.

What would happen if they got CCTV and it shows the copper is lying ?
Or they don't get CCTV when the whole place is covered by it ?

I understand I was wrong for pushing the lad we were both fooling around at first. I even think at one point me and the lad were talking and I had my arm around him and he had his arm around me. ( also the copper mentioned in his statement that he saw this and thought we were just having a laugh )

I understand that there's a good chance I could go prison and have now messed my work up. But I'll deal with that. One thing for deffo though is I won't be gettin myself into the same situation again.

[EDDIE51]

You actually admit hitting the other man so you are guilty ! . Sorry, just accept that you did a stupid thing, plead guilty and hope for a non custodial sentence. There is automatic 1/3rd reduction in any sentence , custodial or not, for a guilty plea at the earliest opportunity so do it.
Then you MAY be able to convince future employers that is was a 1 off and you deserve a 2nd chance.