do you think i will be jailed

[mooney1111]

hi there guys,
i have been charged with assault, by striking someone with a piece of wood, what baiscally happend was, me and my gf where attacked by a gang of youths, i suffred concussion and my gf had a badly burst eye, so immediately after i was attacked i picked up a piece of wood to protect myself, then out of nowhere this man jumped out of his garden screaming and shouting comming towards me, and i assumed he was part of the gang that just attacked me, so i hit him, is this self defense ??, and what sentence do you think i will get, i so what do you think i will be senteced to ??


and i have just recently been accepted into college

[Redbel]

Hi mooney.......have been following this thread...hope you don't mind.....but what are spent convictions.....

[mooney1111]

sorry i got mixed up i mean the magistrates would be for summary cases and the crown for more serious offences

[mooney1111]

spent conviction is a conviction, which under the terms of Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 can be effectively ignored after a specified amount of time. The amount of time for rehabilitation depends on the sentence imposed not on the offence. This act aims to rehabilitate offenders by not making their past mistakes affect the rest of their lives if they have been on the right side of the law for some time. This means that a person who has spent convictions does not have to disclose the conviction to prospective employers, and employers cannot refuse to employ someone on the basis of spent convictions.

You have to tell employers about all your convictions if you want to work with children or vulnerable adults or if you are applying for certain professions such as law, health care, and pharmacy, senior management posts within certain sectors and employment where matters of national security are involved.

If you have received a prison sentence of more than two and a half years your convictions will never become spent.

The more serious the conviction the longer the period of rehabilitation.

If you were 17 or under when found guilty the rehabilitation period is usually half the time if you were 18 or over. For example if the sentence imposed was a community service order then for the younger person the period is two and a half years whilst for the person 18 or over it is five years.

[mycats]

I would only worry if you had been fully committed or if you were going to the high court as that would mean a minimum of 4 years. I really think you will be ok. Is it a jury trial?

[boobesque]

if you picked this lump of wood up and hit the guy after having the crap kicked out of you then this probably wont be seen as intentional. If you had pulled a weapon out of your pocket then that would be a different matter but for all you knew you could have ben fighting for your life.

I dont see what a prison sentence will achieve here. Will it teach you not to do it again? the aim of prison is reform, and if theres nothing to reform then meaningless punishment is just a waste of resources.

Considering you and your girlfriend just had your ass's kicked im suprised that this person is pressing charges against you. its just a case of mistaken identity. At the most you may recieve (in my opinion) community service just as an example to others to not beat people and say they were confused

[mooney1111]

thanks for your reply its not a jury trial.

[mooney1111]

thanks for all your help, i only got a�250 fine, and so i just got convicted for assault, so i can still to the states.