Newton Hearing

[Jasali]

My husband a neighbour had a huge row when drunk when he turned the music loud and I asked him to turn it down he became abusive, my neighbour accused him of being an alcoholic and to get to bed, she went on quite a tirade, in the meantime he picked a pizza up and threw it at the wall which hit me, he then subsequently launched two wine bottles, I called the police as I didn't want the situation to get out of hand. We made statements and he was arrested
My partner pleaded guilty to throwing a pizza (common assault) but denied throwing a wine bottle at me. There is now a Newton Hearing to decide the discrepancies in the events, where I have been called as a witness and the other lady as well
That evening there had been a lot of drinking. It now turns out that:
My husband can't remember what happened and took the witness statements from the police and agreed with them, with no legal counsel. He is european and dyslexic and doesn't understand the english law. He had been drinking heavily and I believe he was still drunk when he gave his plea. Because he doesn't have any friends or family he wasn't able to get a bail address and was kept in the cells for three days the processed at court on the monday, where he was advised to plead guilty to common assault to get bail and go to work. His bail conditions were that he couldn't come home and he was bailed to hostel where they took crack!! A work colleague then gave him a bail address.
I went to try to withdraw my statement the next morning (Saturday) and was told the police didn't have time to see me, he hadn't been charged at that point one said he had one didn't
The other witness can't remember what happened and a second person actually gave a the statement to the police which the 1st witness signed, she never saw the pizza being thrown
There have been serious procedural errors in getting this guilty plea. Its like the police and the CPS just had a sitting duck with my husband who never realised the seriousness of this. Anybody knows you don't let yourself be interviewed without legal counsel! And the 2nd witness statement was incorrectly taken whilst the neighbour was drunk. When they eventually allowed me to withdraw my statement 1 week later, the police officer did a big oops when she found out the argument wasn't between me and my husband, and they quickly got in touch with the CPS and told me that they were happy for my husband to come home, if fact her supervisor was talking in the background quite rapidly. It seems though now it is in the court system there is no way back. How do we best represent this?

[Zacs-Master]

I'm sorry but who was the argument with?

[VHG]

Previous question on this

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Law/Question1285215.html

[Zacs-Master]

Jeez.

[Jasali]

I realise I have posted before, but new information is coming to light...The row was with a neighbour, who gave the statement with the help of another woman. The who lady signed the statement, didn't actually see the offence! I have only just found this out and she can't remember what she said as she was so drunk! I haven't heard of a Newton Hearing before, I've eventually managed to get to the bottom of what is going on and find the whole thing like the woman who swallowed a fly. Surely there are severe procedural errors here and can you present that a Newton Hearing?

[New Judge]

No you cannot.

A guilty plea has been entered and your husband has been convicted. There are very few circumstances under which that conviction can be overturned and those you describe do not seem to fit the bill.

The Newton hearing is needed because the prosecution's version of events and that accepted by your husband by virtue of his guilty plea are so different that the Magistrates consider that their sentence would be substantially different depending on what version is accepted. The Newton hearing will be concerned only with establishing which of the two versions is used for sentencing. The question of guilt will not be entertained because a guilty plea has already been entered.

[FredPuli43]

A person who has pleaded guilty can't get the plea changed because he finds out that, had he fought the case, he would have been acquitted! As I have said before on AB, I once had a case, prosecuting,where a man pleaded guilty when I could not have proved the case in a month of Sundays, because the prosecution couldn't find the witnesses by the time of the hearing. He could not have changed his plea, and neither can the defendant here. The plea is final. It is a total admission of guilt of the offence and needs no more proof of guilt than that, though the details of the offence may be in dispute, hence the Newton hearing.

[New Judge]

Quite so, Fred. I believe that "abuse of process" or "malicious prosecution" (neither of which obviously apply here) could result in the conviction being set aside, but I may be wrong.