Some questions regarding Section 20 GBH

[DBarton]

I am a little confused as to the possible/likely sentences for a crime of this nature, and I have a few questions. I would really appreciate any help that anyone could give.

To explain, my brother, who is 17, is on trial in youth court for section 20 gbh (a broken jaw, specifically.) He originally plead not-guilty, under the advice of his lawyer, as the victim had named someone else as the perpetrator. However, as he had previously confessed to the crime, (a very foolish thing to do, but he was covering for a "friend") there was an initial hearing (called a vaultaire(?) I believe.) to determine the admissibility of the said confession. The magistrates have ruled that it is admissible, and is a true confession.

That being the case, he is strongly considering changing his plea to guilty. My first question is, if he does so, is he likely to be more harshly penalised for wasting the courts time, or is it likely to looked on with favour, or does it make no difference at all?

My next question is this: The broken jaw was caused by a single blow from a closed fist. (no weapon.) it was not pre-meditated. There were no prior threats or anything of the like. Both the prosecution and defence agree on these facts. In the confession he shows genuine remorse, and a desire to apologise to the victim. My brother has just one previous conviction, for handling stolen goods, for which he was conditionally discharged for six months and ordered to pay £50 compensation. This was around 18 months ago. He was cautioned once previous to that.

Given this set of circumstances, my question is: How harsh a punishment is he likely to face? And will a pre-sentencing report have to be completed before a custodial punishment is considered? Also, given that he is under trial in a youth court, is the maximum possible custodial sentence he could face six months, as it would be in a magistrates court, or two years?

[worriedfather]

I see this is awaiting an answer. My son is going through the very same process and he has been charged with GBH. He didn't comit the allegation and is truly innocent, but at the very start he did consider pleading guilty on the advice from the Police. When he attended the Magistrate Court, he saw the Prosecution summary against him which was pretty damming. It excluded any facts that my son had raised, and had some words highlighted in bold letters that made my son look bad. The entire summary was written to only highlight the worse points to gain a conviction.

The Duty Solicitor at the court advised my son to stick to the truth and plead Not Guilty. We are glad he did as since then the evidence has been produced and it appears the other person had suicidal tendancies and has comited self harm in the past. This is still going to Crown Court, but we do feel the outcome will be better than had he pleaded guilty..

As for others pleading guilty to GBH, most sentenced at Magistrates Court are given 6 months. After seeing how the Magistrates operate compared to a Crown Court Judge, I somehow prefer the more professional approach from the Judge.