The defendants appealed against convictions for assault occasioning actual bodily harm on a reference from the Criminal Cases Review Commission. They were police officers said to have assaulted others at a party. The judge had been persuaded not to leave a conviction for common assault to the jury. The jury had then asked whether they could find assault but without injury, and on the judge saying ‘No’ had convicted them of the full offence.
Held: The appeals succeeded, and convictions for common assault substituted: ‘in view of the jury’s question, there is no way in which we can know, and it would be wrong to deduce anything from the jury question itself than that it may realistically have reflected some possible doubt in the mind of one or more of the jury whether the evidence that actual bodily harm had been caused was sufficiently convincing.’
Judges:
Lord Judge LCJ, Penry-Davey, Keith JJ
Citations:
[2009] EWCA Crim 2220
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Crime
Updated: 04 October 2022; Ref: scu.377767