Hello
There was an incident between my partner and I which resulted in him being charged with common assault and criminal damage.
At the time I wrote a detailed statement about the whole argument, what led up to it etc
He was arrested, kept overnight and taken to a magistrates court the next day (he pleaded guilty to criminal damage but not guilty to common assault - he played down how I ended up with a bruise)
They imposed bail conditions for no direct or indirect contact but that wasn't practical because we have a child and I didn't want to stop contact. I requested for them to drop that but no one ever really for back in touch.
One day he was looking after our child whilst I was at work and the police came and arrested him for breaking the bail even though I asked him to look after her.
At this point I retracted my original statement - it was along the lines of I did not want to prosecute or have any further involvement with the police and that I accepted he behaved irrationally because of recent and ongoing personal problems he has and that he was to attend a domestic violence intervention programme and the Dr referred him to a psychiatrist for personal things (which I was pushing for long before this) and I believed this to be a better course of action for him.
The CPS still wanted to go ahead with the case though.
I did not go to the first court date - it was adjourned and apparantley a witness summons for me was granted but I have not received anything (court is this Thursday)
- If they do get a witness summons to me before Thursday, what are the likely consequences if I don't turn up? I've been told "unofficially" by a solicitor that they never follow through with arresting a domestic violence victim for not turning up.
- If I don't turn up and they do decide to go ahead, will they read the original statement even though I retracted the statement? Because of high emotions at the time the original statements sounds worse :-(
- Can I write a letter to the court/judge about how I feel?
I am so stressed by all of this and can't bear to have anything to do with a court.
I just keep getting so upset and want it all to disappear :(