charged with section 20 gbh

[davve2]

i was in a bar and a guy sarted arguing with my girlfriend and raised his hands while arguing,i then hit him once and it caused him to have a broken cheek bone and surgery, after i hit him he started provoking me and was then thrown out the pub, its on camera and i have witnesses saying he provoked the attack, ive pleaded not guilty and its now going to crown court, will i still be charges with gbh?can i say it was self defence?, i do have previous convictions for abh? what do you think i will get? thanks

[bednobs]

I dont think yu will be able to claim self defence for 2 reasons
1) raising your hands dosent mean that he was going to hit you
2) sounds like you were defending your g/f not yourself

[davve2]

well he was verbally aggresive towards both of us, he didnt even get a drink came straight over to us when he arrived, if your provoked does it give you reason to hit someone?

[PWA]

You'll learn not to get involved next time, he didn't touch her and that is the fact. If he had then it would be different grounds.

[davve2]

well previous to this he pushed her in a arguement, can i bring this up in court and say i felt it was going to happen again ?

[Barmaid]

You need to get some legal advice.

You may be able to claim self defence or defence of another or in fact both.

He doesn't have had to struck the first blow for you to be defending your gf.

You could make an application through your legal team to introduce his bad character (ie pushing her in an argument), however, your character will also go in, which is not good for you.

Just answer this - honestly, we are not in court now, why exactly did you hit him?

[andyclark]

mate plead guilty because dow matter waht you say you will be found guilty....you had no marks on you so how can you say self defence?

[Barmaid]

you do NOT need to have been injured to go with self defence. All that is required is the anticipation of an immediate attack. Davve's big probem here is whether he used reasonable force. Why not just push the guy away rather than lamp him one in the face?!