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Did the punishment fit the crime

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KindThoughts | 12:39 Fri 16th Nov 2012 | Law
29 Answers
Recently I was assaulted by another woman. I was slapped hard across the face once and hit twice across the back of my head. The woman was charged and she I together with some witnesses were brought to the police station.

Whilst I gave my statement one of the witness a male who I did not know beforehand claimed that my assailant had also hit him across his face.
I did not know that he had made this allegation up, but I was so angry that I let him do it and did not tell the police otherwise, and I did not think that it mattered that I had omitted his claim from my own statement because as far as I was concerned my assailant was a thug and deserved it.

Anyway eventually the court case happened and on the day the assailant pleaded guilty to slapping me once but not guilty to hitting the male witness. The judge then dropped the male witness charge and gave my assailant a conditional discharge with a £40 fine for compensation.

My question is, was a punishment enough, considering that technically the assailant had beat me?

Would it have been more if I hadn’t stupidly let the make witness claim he had also been hit
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I can't see that it would have made any difference.
Your assailant pleaded guilty to assaulting you.....and the judge decided upon her punishment for the assault against you.
Question Author
@Baldric - How do you delete the second post?
you can't.
As for your question, i agree with jackthehat
i presume you had no lasting damage, and you didn't need medical treatment? Not that that gives her the right to hit you, but the punishment seems about right to me (plus the fact she'll have a criminal record now)
The Ed. has to do the deleting if needed!
But you couldn't have said that your assailant didn't hit the male witness, only that you didn't see it happen.....
Question Author
I find sad that none of you condemmed the male witness for lying.
You didn't ask us to do that.
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No but I find it hard to takke advice from people who think it's OK for people to lie about anybody no matter the circumstance.
Bye, then........

I thought answering the question you *did* ask would have sufficed. But apparently not...
Question Author
@Bednobs - Yes but only for year, after that it's wiped from the thugs record. Wiki even says it's not a punishment.
my god....what have you been googling? a conditional discharge will be on a crb check forever more.
Technically she did not beat you, it makes no difference to you if the male witness lied, yes the punishment is correct for the crime.
Why should your assailant be punished for something that was lie and that she correctly pleaded not guilty to?

You feel sad that we haven't condemned the man for lying yet you suggest at the end of the post that had you lied and corroborated his claim you assailant may have received a harsher punishment.

Do you not think you are being a hypocrite?
This was just a case of 'common assault' the lowest category of such crime.
A conditional discharge is all you could expect from a case like this .
The compensation payment is just that compensation it is not a fine.
As you did not see the second assault there was no evidence sufficient to prove a case so it made no difference if it was reported or not.
You say the 'Judge' dropped the charge so did this case go to crown court or do you mean magistrate?
As has been said the assailant did not 'beat' you that would have been a far more serious charge. This case was a waste of time bringing in the first place.
hi, the editor of this site likes us to stick to answering the questions that are asked, not passing comment about what we think about the morality of things etc, In fact, answers often get banned from this section that are just passing judgement. Personally, if you are asking a question, i thought you'd be quite happy that it had been answered!
I find it bizarre that someone comes on here asking for an opinion about whether a court punishment was fair and then berates everyone for not giving an opinion on something that wasn't asked and says they can't take opinions seriously for that reason.

Do you know for sure he was lying? How do you know he wasn't struck when you were looking elsewhere? Did he admit to making it up?
How would our condemnation of the male make a blind bit of difference to anything?
we could have reared up in outrage and condemned him... but it would change the actual answers to the actual question you asked.

i think its a given that most people would think that making up a lie is wrong

however before you get any higher on your high horse, and moan because people havent instantly supported you, you would do well to remember that it was YOU who allowed this lie to be told FOR YOU, for YOUR benefit - not us

i find that sad.

just because this lie backfired and didnt have the affect you clearly hoped it would - ie, making her sentence higher, is not our fault.

i also dont believe for one minute that you did not have a hand in concocting the extra assault in order to enhance your own case...
Got to say i love the OP's user name.....very appropriate.
'Not even a punishment' ?
The person who assaulted you will NEVER be able to get a job that needs an enhanced CRB check . The person now has a criminal record for assault, it stays on their record for life. The conviction will be 'spent' yes but it will still show on an enhanced CRB check . They can never get a job that involves children or vulnerable people or work as a police officer, community support or any other job that needs a high level of trust such as in a bank.
I am certain that there is a 'background' to this story . I can not believe that you were just standing minding your own business when out of the blue someone came up and slapped you round the head. That background will have been taken into account when the sentence was decided. In fact it would have been a major factor in determining the sentence.
Are you going to let us know what led up to this assault, so we can give a better opinion of 'if it was punishment enough'?

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