Possible Court Proceedings

[tony2087]

What is the likelihood of a court summons being issued for a section 39?
how and when is it issued?

The defendant has pleaded not guilty

I have retracted my statement and do not wish for the matter to go any further

If a summons is issued do i need to attend?
Whats are the consequences of not attending given that it is only a section 39?
i'm I likely to get a witness warrant for my arrest?

First time offence for the defendant, could the case proceed without me?

If I have to attend court can I be forced to go in the witness box and give evidence against the defendant even though i have retracted my statement and I still do not wish to go ahead with the charge?

[DSJ]

Can you explain to us what exactly a Section 39 is?

[tony2087]

Common assault

[New Judge]

There are plenty of answers here on AB (many of which I have made contributions to) which explains that (a) yes you may have a witness summons issued against you (b) if it is you must attend or face arrest and (c) if you refuse to give evidence when you attend you could be held in contempt of court. Here’s just one:

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Law/Criminal/Question1307579.html

I assume this is a matter of domestic violence.

The important thing to remember is that it is not within your gift to decide whether to continue the prosecution or not. That is a matter for the CPS.

[FredPuli43]

And ,in the answer which New Judge gives a link to, the person calling themselves Busi is talking complete nonsense. New Judge is correct.

[tony2087]

Will it be the the cps that shall contact me to advise the defendant has pleaded not guilty and that i shall need to attend as a witness? or will I automatically receive a letter to advise to attend court on such a date?

[tony2087]

new judge is there any way i can contact you directly via private email or phone?

[New Judge]

You will be contacted by the CPS.

[tony2087]

when they contact me is it worth agreeing with the cps that I shall attend and make myself unavailable on the trial day without contacting them and hope the cps shall drop the case and not issue me a summons, rather than declining straightaway as inevitably i'll be issued with a summons

[New Judge]

The CPS should contact you before the trial date is set to check your availability.

In answer to your second point I would not advise that you simply fail to attend. If the CPS has asked you to attend it is unlikely that they will discontinue the proceedings if you fail to do so and will in all probability request that a witness summons be issued. There really is no point in messing the court about.

You have not given any details of the incident but as I said earlier I assume it is one involving domestic violence. The reason for the CPS taking a robust stance in these matters is that huge amounts of police, CPS and court time is spent on cases where the alleged victim provides a withdrawal statement soon after proceedings begin. Apart from the costs involved, almost always this means that offenders are escaping proper justice. Once again, this is not a matter for you to decide and you should co-operate with the CPS.