Any Idea On What Will Happen? Criminal Proceedings. Long

[ct1982]

My partner has magistrates court on October 15th.

He has been charged with two counts of criminal damage and two of assault by beating for an incident with our neighbour.

We have had ongoing problems with a neighbour for a year (threats to kill me/burgle our flat/set it on fire) in which we went through the ASBO/injunction/court/police process. The neighbour has mental health issues, we had him assessed for sectioning but he was deemed fit.

During the last outburst (May 2013) my partner lost it and threw bricks through the living room window, jumped into his front room and pinned the neighbour to the floor, shouting at him. He then took the neighbours phone and snapped it in half as the neighbour had him my partner with it. My partner then exited the property through the window and left the street.

My partner had been drinking.
The police were called and he was arrested. His mobile phone was confiscated and he was on bail to his parents address until September. He has now been charged with the above offences.

The poilice still have his phone as they believe my partner is going to pleed not guilty and they have text message 'evidence' on there regarding the assault to the neighbour. The neighbour said he was repeatedly punched. My partner said he didn't hit him - which he didn't. Another neighbour (who was across the street at the time) said he saw my partner punching the neighbour and has put forward a witness statement.

He will be pleading guilty to 3 of the offences - 2x criminal damage (window & phone) and assault if he can put forward that he didn't punch him, just pinned him to the floor. The 2nd assault didn't happen .

When my partner was 18 (in 2001) he was charged with assault for an incident with his ex girlfiends brother (caution).
Then last July 2012 he was charged with assault on a football pitch (fine & 60 hours community service)
This summer he was with someone that broke a car window when drinking, was arrested for criminal damage but not charged.

Now this has happened. He was on antidepressants at the time and seeing a counsellor for drinking, his sister had to attend the police station on request of the police with his antidepressants.

He thinks he will get another community service order but I think they will look at the fact he completed 60 hours last year and to their eyes, it hasn't made a difference.

[dizmouk2009]

The chances are that if he has already been in trouble with the police before and given a community service order he is looking at a custodial sentence.

The things you need to take into consideration here are that he was under the influence of alcohol and his statement will be seen as very weak at best. Not to mention there is an eye witness saying they saw your partner hitting/beating (however you wish to describe it) the other person.

Knowing this man had a mental illness also makes things worse for your partner.

There isn't a lot more I can say really. I'd suggest a good solicitor.

[EDDIE51]

Sorry but a prison sentence is a very real possibility this time. in fact I will be very surprised if it is anything less.
I expect the magistrate to send the case to crown court as they will say the case is too serious to be tried at magistrates court where they can only give a maximum sentence of 6 months .

[dizmouk2009]

Eddie: I agree but actually a magistrate can give two six months as a sentence which is obviously 12 months sentence

[EDDIE51]

dizmouk not as far as I know , the 2 sentences would run concurrently so the sentence would still be 6 months. i have seen 5 six month sentences given at one time but still only six months as they all run concurrently.

[dizmouk2009]

I've just passed this thread onto a magistrate (I am not willing to say what connection nor am I willing to say who).

On what you have said they would give a custodial sentence. Without hearing anything in court it is hard to give a length but he/she said they would give your partner 4 - 5 months imprisionment.

The eye witness could be disregarded but the question would be "why would he lie about witnessing your patner beating this man up".

[EDDIE51]

We never get the full story from both sides on these threads.

[dizmouk2009]

EDDIE51: If the criminal damage (on two accounts) is a imprisionable offense then the two sentences would run consecutively = 12 months.

[dizmouk2009]

A magistrate can give up to 1 year if two custodial offenses have been commited. Anything more (or seen as require or serious) would be passed onto crown court.

[dizmouk2009]

To make this really simple. He is going to get locked up. He needs a miracle.

[EDDIE51]

I agree he is going to get locked up. I didn't know the law had changed to allow sentences to be run one after the other.

[New Judge]

The information provided by dizmouk is not correct.

Magistrates can only impose a custodial sentence of more than six months if they are sentencing two or more “either way” offences. In those circumstances their powers are limited to one year (two sentences of six months to be served consecutively) regardless of the number of offences being sentenced.

However, Criminal Damage and Common Assault/Assault by Beating are “summary only” offences. They can only be dealt with in the Magistrates’ court and cannot be passed to the Crown Court for sentencing no matter how many offences are beating sentenced or the seriousness of those offences. As a result the maximum sentence available for these incidents when dealt together is six months. The partner of ct will apparently be pleading guilty. If he does a discount of one third must be allowed, making the maximum four months. All prisoners are released when they have served half of their sentence. This release is automatic and unconditional. In addition to this, current “Home Detention Curfew” arrangements make prisoners serving sentences of between four and twelve months eligible for release when they have served one quarter of their sentence, meaning they will be released after one month. So even if ct’s partner is sentenced to the maximum (by no means a certainty) he will serve just four weeks.

[EDDIE51]

New judge , Yes that is what I thought thanks for the clarification.
you didn't add that any time spent in detention after the arrest will be deducted from the sentence as well , plus no one can be released on a weekend or a bank holiday so if release is due on a weekend it will be brought forward to the Friday before . The offender could be out of jail in under 2 weeks on a 6 month sentence!

[ct1982]

Thaks for all of your responses.
Just as I thought, I was expecting the worst anyway...I think he is just blocking it out.

I know it won't be taken into account that the neighbour has intimidated the last two sets of tenants before us and they were both also emergency rehoused for their safety. We had done everything right all along with the ASBO/court process and had all sorts of safety aids installed but this time he just pushed my partner too far.

What kicked it all off was he opened his front door with a knife in his hand when my partner was walking into our flat and he just flipped. Now that my partner caused all of this damage and was arrested, he told the police what happened in his statement but noone witnessed the incident starting as it is at the side of the house so they wouldn't do anything about it.

They have new people in our old flat now. Good luck to them. They are going to need it! (and a LOT of patience)

[dizmouk2009]

New Judge: My mistake. I did relay what you have said to the magistrate I know and they agreed. It was me who made the error not them. I do apologise. I knew you'd come in on this one :)

Their view was 4 months custodial sentence. I think I made the error because I was biased. Probably the reason I'd never make a good magistrate.

Sorry ct for providing incorrect information. Sorry to you Eddie for saying you were wrong when in actual fact you were not.