Not Guilty Plea

[Philta]

My son's ex has been charged with common assault on her 8 year old son for slapping him across the face and causing damage to his eye. She admitted in her police statement that she had done it but says she caught him with her ring which was an accident so she has pleaded non guilty what are the chances of a conviction. She has pleaded gutsy to assault on price officer and resisting arrest

[Buenchico]

Since the Crown Prosecution Service have chosen not to pursue a charge of 'assault causing actual bodiy harm', it appears to me that they might well have decided that a court woud accept that the injury was accidental and they're therefore relying upon getting a conviction based upon the definition of common assault, which is "when a person intentionally or recklessly causes another to apprehend the immediate infliction of unlawful force". (i.e. the injury is being ignored and your son's ex is being prosecuted solely on the basis of an unlawful assault).

It will be for the court to decide whether a slap across a child's face, deivered by a parent, is 'unlawful' or not. A parental smack on a child's bottom wouldn't be, as the defence of 'reasonable chastisement' woud be valid. A few decades ago a court might well have regarded a slap to a child's face as also being 'reasonable chastisement' but I doubt that it would nowadays.

So, if I was a betting man, my money would be on your son's ex being convicted of the offence.