Not Guilty Verdict in s18 Stabbing

After a 7 day trial our client was acquitted. This case began from a tragic set of circumstances. Our client had made an attempt to take his own life by overdosing. Shortly after he was released from hospital he was alleged to have been involved in an altercation during which the complainant was stabbed. The complainant was his estranged father. 

Our client had very limited memory of the incident and couldn’t say whether he had been responsible. We obtained psychiatric evidence which suggested as a result of his mental health state and ongoing affects of the overdose at the relevant time he may not have been able to form the relevant intent for a s18 GBH. Following late service of DNA evidence linking our client to a knife found at the scene we instructed our own expert to consider the relevance of the findings and that the evidence could not confirm when our client had been in contact with the knife.

We were also able to potentially raise self defence as a result of another weapon at the scene, and point to another potential suspect for the stabbing. In all of the circumstances we sought to persuade the jury they could not be sure of our clients guilt. We were successful.

Amy Cox prepared this case, assisted by Frederick Legg and Katie Lobo. Clea Topolski of Crucible chambers was instructed.