Abh Charge V Self Defence

[sha77]

Hi ive see this question afew times on here and some of the answers are really helpful. I know its not definate advise of what will happen but looking for the chance.
my partner recent went on a night out and got very drunk. While coming home he got into a altercation with a security guard. He could not remember clearly at the time and due to the security having a witness to his side of the story ( he said my partner went at him in a threatening manner, punching him in the face and biting his arm ) my partner was arressed and charged.
The area where this occured is covered by CCTV. We have since got hold of this footage which shows my partner was not the agressor, keeping his hands in his pockets the whole timewhile the guard visibly ranted at him. when my partner turned to walk away the guard grabbed him and a struggle did occur with my partner trying to pull away the whole time! he was then thrown to the floor and the guard held him down. There is a possibly he did bite the guard as he had his arm over my partners face.
this footage although requested at the time of the arrest was not available for the police and has only just been given out. He has been to court where they still decided he should stand trial at the magistrates as CAT 3 ABH due to the bite. trial date set for july 31st. does this soung right ?? cos it does not to me ?

[EDDIE51]

You say he 'it is possible he did bite the guard' . A bite is an assault.
That possible assault will be tried in court. The magistrates will look at the evidence and make a decision if he is guilty or not guilty.

[EDDIE51]

I would tell him to plead not guilty, from what you say there is little chance of him being found guilty.

[Retrochic]

The CCTV footage will become part of your partners defense so even though he has to stand trial he is unlikely to be convicted if the tape shows what you have said it contains

[New Judge]

Who told you it was Category 3?

This is a matter for determination by the Magistrates and they do not do that until sentencing. With ABH they need to make an assessment of the seriousness of the offence when deciding whether to retain jurisdiction or to send the case to the Crown Court for trial but that would not usually involve them announcing into which category they felt the offence fell.

[sha77]

hi it was the magistrate who stated it would be tried under catagory 3 and would be heard at the magistrates - july 31st - it has also moved on since then tbh the CPS are now disagreeing due to the video footage and one has advised plead not guilty and the bite is to be seen as reasonable force as self defence as no lasting harm was caused ( was just red at the time ) so 4 months to wait for it to be possibly thrown out.... thank you for your replies

[sha77]

Right the case went to court, the prosecution case was flawed, the two statements from the witnesses security guards did not match at key points with them disagreeing on most of the actual events which took place. As for the CCTV footage this was watched on a 32 inch tv, not zoomed in, the magistrates watched from around 14 foot away. My partner did not falter from his original statement, which did match with the footage.

After a 45 minute adjournment he was found guilty. In summing up the magistrate stated they had to discount the CCTV footage as too graining and not clear ! and the witness statements matched. it was basically as if the magistrates had been playing candy crush and not actually been paying attention at all. My partners solicitor called it a perverse decision which should be immediately appealed. He is back in court in 3 weeks for sentencing.

Thats where we are at at the moment. Im all up for appeal, but my partner can only see the costs involved. Now we are not rich, live month to month. We are unable to claim any legal aid or help with court costs as we both work. These at the moment stand at around £2000, with £1000 already paid out of that. I just feel sick, he says well he knew his card was marked as he just knew before he went in they had to even up the cases that day. 3 cases in court, 1st adjourned as no dvd to play the footage in that court, 2nd one acquitted due to witnesses not turning up, so stacked against him