assaulted on night out

[brumster]

i am currently serving in the army and after a drunken night out with my wife i was beaten unconscious by a fellow service member while another one stood and watched. I spent 4 days in hospital and i am currently on sick leave with concussion . The doctors said i am lucky there were no fractures or blindness but i suffered terrible bruising and swelling of my face. What could the other two people expect to receive in relation to this incident? What does the assault actually count as?

[kwicky]

Civilian law may be different to Army regulations but I would suspect it might be GBH. I assume they are being court martialled.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievous_bodily_h arm

[Lonnie]

I'd like to ask, what on earth were you doing going out with your wife and having a 'Drunken Night',
Do it with your friends, maybe, (I served ten years, so know what the culture is in the Army), but not with a woman in tow, especially your wife.
I'd hazard a guess that there'd been an arguement, and he didn't just attack you, which is the way your post sounds.

[johnlambert]

28 days confinement

[Englishbird]

I'd say in a cilvilian court it would be more like ABH, acutal bodily harm, seeing as you didn't have any broken bones etc.

No disrespect, but I have to agree with Lonnie, few people are attacked without any input whatsoever... there's always two sides. Not saying you deserved it, but would guess there's more to the story.

[saxy_jag]

Some years ago, a neighbour's son claimed to have defended himself against an MP whilst on a night out. It turned out he was out with a friend, was drunk and, for some reason, shouldn't even have been out of barracks at that point. Basically he caused the same injuries to the MP that these guys caused to you. However the MP suffered from a lot of stress stuff afterwards as a result and was looking to be invalided out of the army.

Anyways, the upshot was that neighbour's son went AWOL. When they eventually caught up with him he ended up doing nine months inside, followed by dismissal from the army.

As has been said, there's always two sides (neighbour reckons the MP had been picking on him and his mate for months). The only people who could really give you the best idea are going to be those dealing with your case. Do you not have some sort of adviser you could ask?

[idalovett]

I think that irrespective of being on leave and being a civilian at the time that you were hurt that if you are serving in the army then it is a matter for the army to take up. Its probably recognised as GBH both sides of the fence. If the police were invloved its criminal proceedings and if the army were involved then they have their own terminology but take proceedings over from the police (but both report back to each other) but I think both walk the same path legally. I think you need to see your CO first and foremost.