Common Assault - UK

[feltwell1]

Hi all,

This is a very strange situation and I need a bit of advice.

My partner called the police on me the morning after an argument (I wanted to break up with him).

As I was packing my things to leave his house, the police turned up and informed me I have been accused of threatening him with a knife.

Long story short, I was arrested and released on bail even though there is no evidence to support his statement (he even said I was stood cutting my arm infront of him and of course as it is lies the police searched my body for the marks to be in line with his statement, none were found).

In the meantime he has retracted his statement but for some reason the CPS are still pursuing.

We have reconciled and now his ex, who originally was fine with him and I being together around their son (even after arrest etc) has now changed her mind.

sidenote: their son was not present during the argument, has never witnessed an argument between us and i have no previous convictions

She is now saying that social services have been in contact with her and have said he is only allowed to see his son during supervised visits ((such as at weekends with his sons grandmother), and if I am convicted he will not be allowed to see his son.

My questions are- if a decision such as this was made already, wouldn't my partner be involved in the process or at least have been notified officially?
How true would it be for social sevices to step i n if i were convicted baring in mind it is an alleged isolated incident, no children were present etc?

I honestly cannot believe this is happening to me from a single allegation with absolutely no evidence but my concern is not being allowed to maintain my relationship with his son.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

As far as ss and the ex are concerned, they have acted completely appropriately given that you were accused of common assault and self harming with a knife. I would be more shocked if they were all happy for you to see the child. Whether you did or didn't do it is irrelevant as far as they are concerned, they're erring on the side of caution and prioritising the child's welfare.

With regards to advice then I suppose if your husband puts in writing that he made it up purely out of malice at an emotional time, and you both spend several months, maybe longer, proving your stability and earning trust back, then potentially things may be able to return to more normal in the future . Your partner may get done for wasting police time though. CPS won't be able to run with it if there's no evidence though? What evidence do they have - from your OP it would only be his word, which he has since retracted.

Given that he provided a statement re the complaint, the risk of providing a retracting to say that the allegation was entirely fabricated would be partner being charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice. I assume his retraction statement as stands says he doesn't want to take the matter forward.

Re the bail/cps issues - you do not need corroboration evidence under uk law to prosecute. Many dv cases are one word against the other. However, they would have to be satisfied that there is a realistic prospect of conviction. The retraction may not affect this assessment (they can summons someone to give evidence) but the lack of cuts to your arms should clearly give them concern about the credibility of his evidence.

Hope it resolves soon op.

I've been through a similar process although I did actually hit DP and I did get a caution for common assault. Unfortunately in your case, the CPS take DV cases very seriously and it doesn't matter if there's no evidence, they still look to prosecute. Like pp have said it's often one word against another and furthermore victims do tend to look at retracting statements or saying they don't want the person to be prosecuted often over fear of repercussions from the perpetrator. So the CPS do tend to overrule this and push for a prosecution

In terms of the ex and social services, it's a pretty normal response they've had tbh. Let's be fair would you want your son around violence, alleged or not?

Also meant to add chances are social services were informed upon your arrest. When I got arrested and DP gave his statement they took the details of his DD, her school, Mum's details etc. As far as I'm aware they did notify social services. His ex also spoke to a solicitor about limiting his DD's time around me.

Hi everyone thanks for your advice...good news it was thrown out of court!! Not sure what this means now in terms of social services though. And of course the social worker is now on holiday!

That's really good @feltwell1 I spoke to DP about this. He said the solicitor told his Ex unless I was a danger to the child, they couldn't do anything about it. Apparently also in my case social services weren't automatically called, they weren't notified at any stage of the process.

Is it possible she called them herself or is now just using it as an excuse to limit contact?