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Police need to question me about assulting my cousins ex boyfriend who beat her up
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
To be brief as possible this is what has happened. My cousin dated a very messed up boyfriend for about 1 year 7 months who on some occasions became quite aggressive, possessive, controlling and "off the hook" for the smallest of reasons. Just to sum him up, he deals drugs, takes steroids and never thinks he's done anything wrong, always moody and badly done to, complete prick really.
about 6 months ago he beat her up in the street and the police had to be called, she didn't press any charges so he got off with it even though she has a horrible scar on her arm where he hurt her. For the next 6 months they had no contact until he contacted her and they started talking again, he said he'd changed but while she was out one night he was also out and he started grabbing her again, getting annoyed at her. She kept trying to pull away and told him to not come near her but after some "stalking" he got her outside with his sister, held her against the wall while his sister hit her.
I've stood by and watch him be aggressive many a time and not done a thing thinking "it's a bad argument, i shouldn't put my nose in" and i've regretted it so much. Well this time my cousin did press charges but he managed to get off with it, since then i've been so angry.
He works close to me and a few days after he got off with beating her up i saw him while on my way to the post office to get stamps. i could see him talking on the phone in green combats and a black t shirt pulling it down thinking he's great because he's on steroids. I crossed the road and went to speak to him, then as i get close i saw him see me, then laugh and he said something but i'm not sure what. At that moment i lost control, ran at him and punched him in the side of the head where it bounced off the wall then as he stumbled smacked him again until it all broke loose and we were full blown fighting. It was a good scrap which ended in me with a bloody eye and him asking people to get me off him.
I ran back to work covered in blood and got off home.
well fast forward two weeks i just got a call from the police saying i need to contact them. I'm assuming this means they've been to collect evidence like the CCTv, statements and they want my side of the story now. I'm going to say that he provoked me by smiling and i just lost the plot. It was not premeditated.
I'm just wondering, what do you think will happen? What kind of punishments are there for an assault like this? Could it just go down as my word against his about him provoking me and would they see it as a family dispute or something?
I just wanted the guy to stay away form my cousin and i end up loosing the plot an cracking him.
From what i know, they will have me clearly on CCTV walking up to him while he's on the phone then running at him and punching him, there were many witnesses like security guards since it was outside a public building.
This is quite a serious matter, i work for the government too, the jobcentre in fact, so if i get a criminal record i'm done for where my job is concerned.
Any help would be really appreciated guys. The last fight i had was in school, i've never been in trouble before.
about 6 months ago he beat her up in the street and the police had to be called, she didn't press any charges so he got off with it even though she has a horrible scar on her arm where he hurt her. For the next 6 months they had no contact until he contacted her and they started talking again, he said he'd changed but while she was out one night he was also out and he started grabbing her again, getting annoyed at her. She kept trying to pull away and told him to not come near her but after some "stalking" he got her outside with his sister, held her against the wall while his sister hit her.
I've stood by and watch him be aggressive many a time and not done a thing thinking "it's a bad argument, i shouldn't put my nose in" and i've regretted it so much. Well this time my cousin did press charges but he managed to get off with it, since then i've been so angry.
He works close to me and a few days after he got off with beating her up i saw him while on my way to the post office to get stamps. i could see him talking on the phone in green combats and a black t shirt pulling it down thinking he's great because he's on steroids. I crossed the road and went to speak to him, then as i get close i saw him see me, then laugh and he said something but i'm not sure what. At that moment i lost control, ran at him and punched him in the side of the head where it bounced off the wall then as he stumbled smacked him again until it all broke loose and we were full blown fighting. It was a good scrap which ended in me with a bloody eye and him asking people to get me off him.
I ran back to work covered in blood and got off home.
well fast forward two weeks i just got a call from the police saying i need to contact them. I'm assuming this means they've been to collect evidence like the CCTv, statements and they want my side of the story now. I'm going to say that he provoked me by smiling and i just lost the plot. It was not premeditated.
I'm just wondering, what do you think will happen? What kind of punishments are there for an assault like this? Could it just go down as my word against his about him provoking me and would they see it as a family dispute or something?
I just wanted the guy to stay away form my cousin and i end up loosing the plot an cracking him.
From what i know, they will have me clearly on CCTV walking up to him while he's on the phone then running at him and punching him, there were many witnesses like security guards since it was outside a public building.
This is quite a serious matter, i work for the government too, the jobcentre in fact, so if i get a criminal record i'm done for where my job is concerned.
Any help would be really appreciated guys. The last fight i had was in school, i've never been in trouble before.
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Comments
Otherwise it'll be a court case, either for common assault or ABH. If you goto court you won't be able to argue self-defence (you weren't in danger) and it'll be difficult for you to argue provocation because he'll deny it and the CCTV shows you throwing the first punch.
The judge could take into account the family dispute, and it would be a mitigating circumstance, and if you've never been in trouble with the police before I expect your punishment if any will be a fine/damages.
As for your record/job that is something your employers will have to decide.
Should have filled him in on the quiet with no witnesses.
You may want to check out some of our legal advice on TheSite.org about the basics -
http://www.thesite.org/homelawandmoney/law/introuble/policebasics
http://www.thesite.org/homelawandmoney/law/introuble/rightsonarrest
but I think the first thing you really need to do is to start looking for some legal support.
Best bet in this case is probably to ring the free legal advice service from the Community Legal Service, at the very least to get a firm understanding of your situation.
The number is 0845 345 4 345
And I hope you don't mind but I'll shift this over to home, law and money where it probably fits better.
That's what I was thinking too, sorry Nameless. You tried to beat him with his own weapons and that backfired. In a eye for an eye way your are perfectly justified, but not in a way the law sees it.
good luck, try to come off it cleanly and let us know how it went.
You need legal advice and you need it fast. They'll ask you in for "a little chat" but I'd expect you to be interviewed under caution and then charged. You can get the number for a local criminal law solicitor from the Criminal Law Solicitors Association here.
That sucks
If it were me, I'd lie as little as possible and base it on the truth. I'd say he threw something at me or swung first and that you were scared. Make him out to look a liar. Try your hardest to play down what happened
Just don't admit you lost control and instigated the violence.
Like skive says, you have to make him look like a nutter who started it. If you say you started it you will be ripped to shreds by the police. If you say you lost control and filled him in then you are likely to make any sentence worse.
Unless you can show that he started it and you were acting in self-defence then you're likely to be charged with ABH, from what you've said. You nmight be lucky and get it down to affray. If you get done for ABH, even with the 1/3 off for an early guilty plea you'll be lucky if you get less than 200 hours community service.
Nameless, you can lie, but that's your perogative. Remember that you've told us that the CCTV and witnesses will show you going up to someone and hitting them for no reason. If you insist that the other guy threw the first punch despite the evidence then you'll be in more trouble.
And Kermit, his record is irrelevant. You know as well as anyone that just because someone is a twat it doesn't mean you can walk up to them and punch them first and then call it self-defence.
The guy who investigated my cousins case with kristian investigated this case because they are connected.
Basically i admitted it completely, told him my story(on my way to post office, i see him and because he got off with his charges i felt compelled to tell him to stay away because there's nothign stopping him contacting her again and as i approached him he laughed, smiled, said something and i lost control, punched him).
I told the officer i was sorry and it's not something i usually do or have ever done.
He said it always goes to the highest charge at first which was ABH but it will probably be brought down to common assult if i get charged. After the interview i think because of the past case with kristian and my cousin it was just a lot of bad blood/family dispute and it won't happen again so eh chose not to take it to the CPS and gave me caution.
So i got off really well considering i was on 4 cameras. I think i got off because of my attitude, my background and his background.
So, telling the truth worked :thumb: nice one mate. Now don't do it again
It depends on the evidence, as always. All I've said is that he should think carefully about what he says to the police officer, which is standard advice, there's no point saying things to incriminate yourself if there's no need. You don't get any credit for pleading guilty to the copper, the 1/3 applies on the first day of court, so see what the evidence is before you admit anything.
Just because the police say they've got 4 cameras of you battering him doesn't mean they have. Police officers say a lot of things in interview which bend the truth, shall we say. Their job is to get you to incriminate yourself so they will say they have all this compelling evidence. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.
Not telling the police officer that he smiled at you and you lost it isn't lying. If you think it is you're deranged. You're not lying just because you don't tell the whole truth. Only an idiot or an innocent would tell the police everything in the first interview.
I know its that kind of world and its a shame because (if you see my thread about 'disguising' the fact I'm a student looking for work) nearly everyone is brought up by their parents to never lie especially to a police officer, in an ideal world people could just tell the truth without worrying about falling into police traps because the police would be solely interested in the best resolution for the situation rather than meeting targets and securing a conviction or whatever.
Sorry I'm rambling
And, yeah, I'm well aware that's my lawyer brain kicking in.
Well pleading guilty, co-operating fully, showing remorse obviously has worked in his favour. To come away from an ABH charge with a caution is, imho VERY lucky indeed, and if he had taken your advice he'd be waiting for a court date.
Well it's not always like that. The police fucked me over big time several years ago because I was too candid. Then used my statment to go after myu mates.
I did fuck all wrong and came away with a conviction for violent dissorder. My mates who had behaved much worse came away with cautions. I told the truth they lied and they came off better.
Don't tell the police anything until you know what the case is against you. Lying does get people off. That is not bad advice.
My point was, he did know the case and evidence against him, as did other people who thought the best advice regardless would be to lie.
There's one thing lying if you know you can get away with it, doing it when you know they have evidence against you, or advising someone to do it is daft.
Lying to the old bill has always done me alright even when there's been plenty of evidence againts me.
The onme time I was candid with police and I pleaded guilty to something I had barely done. My mates pleaded not guilty to the same offence despite there being more evidence against them and they got off lighter - work that out.
It's joke.
:rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Why is it daft, exactly?
Generally what happens in cases as serious as this is that the person is charged and then prosecuted. The police don't have all the evidence at charge, you know that. Say nothing until you've seen the evidence and hedge your bets. Wait for the evidence to come in and then plead guilty if the evidence is overwhelming. If it's not then you can say you were provoked or acting in self-defence as the evidence won't contradict you.
You know and I know that CCTV shows fuck all, more often than not.
If you've commited a crime, and got away with it scot free, but its relatively serious say GBH, theres a conflict of interests between the lawyer orientated person vs police (one trying to get the smallest sentence, the other the biggest) and the moralist I guess you could call it minded who feel they have a civic duty to confess and be innocent on their conscience...
This idea that you musn't lie to a policeman is complete crap. Any kids I have will be taught to respect the law, but never to fully trust the police.