charged today with GBH section 18

[kelzberna]

charged today with GBH section 18 after being on bail for over 2 months. The whole story is..... My partner was looking to clean he's car on our shared driveway with our neighbours but the neighbour didn't like this and got very aggressive toward my partner. Words were exchanged and our neighbour went to attack my partner. In defense my partner used reasonable force to defend himself, in the process our neighbour feel and split he's head open, it wasn't a bad cut only 4 stitches were needed. Once this happened all our neighbours came rushing over so my partner protected himself with a metal pole, which witnesses are now saying he used to hit our neighbour (which is false as no one was at the attack at the time). Since the incident I've had no support from police, they have still not taken my statement, I've been watched constantly by our neighbours and my son has been followed all was reported to police but nothing was done. I'm really worried now as I'm not sure what a section 18 carries I've heard it can mean life imprisonment! Is it self defense if its on our property? As well as this the neighbour put in he's statement to police that my partner offered him a fight and the neighbour went back in he's home, put shoes on and came back out to my partner. So he was looking to have a violent adjudication with my partner.

[factor-fiction]

I agree that walking away isn't really an option when someone is repeatedly hitting you. I was talking about walking away at an earlier stage to reduce the risk of confrontation- in this case maybe once your neighbour was annoyed at you washing the car on a shared drive maybe you could have retreated at that point.
Knocking out your neighbour (if that means making him unconscious) may not be regarded as reasonable force.
I'm not clear whether this happened on your property or on the shared driveway.