Reasonable force to defend myself ?

fortuneteller

following months of intimidation and twice being pushed by this thug on the rank i was punched in the side of the head by him. I immediately and in shock from the assault kicked out striking the thug in the upper leg.I went straight to the gardai and reported the assault explaining exactly what happened.He lied in his statement and then ,
He concocted two witnesses who made false statements and said i kicked him first:eek:(which i did not) The only actual witness (his friend) refused to make a statement....
Now the garda that was tasked with investigating the matter is taking me to court for assault...
Comments welcome:cool:
p.s sorry for bad spelling

MagicSean

Consult a solicitor

massy086

is there no ccv of it

fortuneteller

I feel very agrieved already and im going to have to pay out now for being assulted.
NOT FAIR....is it

fortuneteller

massy086 wrote: »

is there no ccv of it

no, i checked the area ,there are cameras but they are fixed and not pointing anywhere near the incident.
Another elderly driver was punched in the face by this animal a few months back and made a complaint but again no witnesses...

irishh_bob

fortuneteller wrote: »

following months of intimidation and twice being pushed by this thug on the rank i was punched in the side of the head by him. I immediately and in shock from the assault kicked out striking the thug in the upper leg.I went straight to the gardai and reported the assault explaining exactly what happened.He lied in his statement and then ,
He concocted two witnesses who made false statements and said i kicked him first:eek:(which i did not) The only actual witness (his friend) refused to make a statement....
Now the garda that was tasked with investigating the matter is taking me to court for assault...
Comments welcome:cool:
p.s sorry for bad spelling

i myself have a conviction for defending myself on my own property , i was assaulted and merley restrained the other guy , the intruder was well connected with the guards and got doctor friends of his to verify complete crap ( self inflicted injurys ) for him in court , the whole thing was a farce , i also had a pathetically weak legal team who advised me not to appeal due to the fact that thier were no witnesses , i deeply regret not having done this as i know a quality criminal law firm would have made mince meat of the case , the whole experience taught me a few things

1. never make a statement to the guards about anything , tell your story in court , that way , you dont have to worry about recalling everything you said in your statement and therefore are less likely to sound unsure , the guards also have less material to work with

most people never have any real experience with the guards and thier default possition is to assume that the guards are knights in shinning armour who will rush to assist you in every way shape and form , this isnt how it is at all

detective

irishh_bob wrote: »

1. never make a statement to the guards about anything , tell your story in court , that way , you dont have to worry about recalling everything you said in your statement and therefore are less likely to sound unsure , the guards also have less material to work with

Please don't listen to this advise. He hasn't a clue what he's talking about. If you are a witness in a case you must make a statement to Gardaí. You cannot just give evidence without a defence solicitor knowing what is going to be said first. The defendant is entitled to know the evidence against him.

Nolanger

OP it's your own fault for going to the Garda after hitting that guy.

irishh_bob

detective wrote: »

Please don't listen to this advise. He hasn't a clue what he's talking about. If you are a witness in a case you must make a statement to Gardaí. You cannot just give evidence without a defence solicitor knowing what is going to be said first. The defendant is entitled to know the evidence against him.

please dont listen to this advice OP , just because someone decides not to make a statement , it doesnt in anyway mean thier defense team is not entitled to the accusers statement and all evidence must be presented prior to court , as for a witness being obliged to make a statement , in a situation where you have two brawling guys who each accuse the other side of having assaulted them , both of theese individuals are witnesses to the crime yet neither of them are obliged to make a statement

detective

irishh_bob wrote: »

please dont listen to this advice OP , just because someone decides not to make a statement , it doesnt in anyway mean thier defense team is not entitled to the accusers statement and all evidence must be presented prior to court , as for a witness being obliged to make a statement , in a situation where you have two brawling guys who each accuse the other side of having assaulted them , both of theese individuals are witnesses to the crime yet neither of them are obliged to make a statement

In relation to you example of two brawlers how do you expect the matter to go to court if there are no statements? What you say in a witness statement cannot be used to prosecute you. In that case both brawlers will be invited to make a witness statement and a voluntary cautioned statement.

Milk & Honey

The o/p is the defendant in the case. He would be very unwise to make a statement. He is not obliged to tell the prosecution the nature of his defence. In any event it appears that he went to the Garda and made a statement of complaint first. That statement is now in evidence whether he likes it or not.

irishh_bob

detective wrote: »

In relation to you example of two brawlers how do you expect the matter to go to court if there are no statements? What you say in a witness statement cannot be used to prosecute you. In that case both brawlers will be invited to make a witness statement and a voluntary cautioned statement.

only one of the brawlers need make a statement for a case to proceed yet both can ( and should ) report being assaulted , i.e , one of the parties can wait untill court to tell thier full story and thier not having made a statment will have little if any negative effect , quite the opposite as the guards are not always even handed in how they treat different parties , by making no statement , you avoid assisting any potential agenda the guards might have

detective

irishh_bob wrote: »

only one of the brawlers need make a statement for a case to proceed yet both can ( and should ) report being assaulted , i.e , one of the parties can wait untill court to tell thier full story and thier not having made a statment will have little if any negative effect , quite the opposite as the guards are not always even handed in how they treat different parties , by making no statement , you avoid assisting any potential agenda the guards might have

If one brawler makes a statement and the other doesn't then I can assure you that the person making the statement will not be charged as in the absence of evidence against him the case against him couldn't proceed. No statement equals no evidence.

fortuneteller

Thank's for your advise, yes,i am sorry now i went near the gardai .The one that delt with my complaint did nothing to investigate my statement he just sat back and said....well he has two witnesses and you have none....Ill be making an offical complaint to the ombudsman about this ,and the fact that the little toe rag has flatly refused to return any of my calls or messages.
The last thing i'll ever do is help them again.The amount of times i've given them info about dogdy stuff goin on and fights on the streets at night.
Im not takin this ,no way am i havin a conviction for defendig myself against a bully, i'll drag the whole lot of them including that useless garda to the circut court and higher if i have to.......Did you find any witnesses yet....? is the only 6 words that garda spoke to me since the incident last april.....

irishh_bob

fortuneteller wrote: »

Thank's for your advise, yes,i am sorry now i went near the gardai .The one that delt with my complaint did nothing to investigate my statement he just sat back and said....well he has two witnesses and you have none....Ill be making an offical complaint to the ombudsman about this ,and the fact that the little toe rag has flatly refused to return any of my calls or messages.
The last thing i'll ever do is help them again.The amount of times i've given them info about dogdy stuff goin on and fights on the streets at night.
Im not takin this ,no way am i havin a conviction for defendig myself against a bully, i'll drag the whole lot of them including that useless garda to the circut court and higher if i have to.......Did you find any witnesses yet....? is the only 6 words that garda spoke to me since the incident last april.....

you need to take a step back and stop being so idealistic and also so naieve , can this talk of going to the ombudsman and dragging guards and judiciary down , heres the harsh reality , this guard has done absolutley nothing and when i say nothing , i mean he has not shown bias towards the other side , unless he is aware of previous altercations between you and theese people where you were the obvious victim , thier is no reason why he should take your side , you have absolutley nothing to complain about regarding the guards and even you did , heres another harsh reality

you are a suspect in an assault case , untill the outcome of this becomes clear , you are on the backfoot , you might be cleared but if you are found guilty , you will find youself lacking in credibility in the eyes of the law for the rest of your life so even a guard was to strike you across the face with a baton for spitting on the pavement , you would be starting off several meters behind the starting line , thier have been thousands of complaints made to the ombudsman since it openend and you could count on two hands the number of times any serious discipline has been meated out to members of the force , something people who have run ins with the guards learn very quickly is that guards have licence ( up to a point ) to make life uncomfortable for people , im not talking about framing anyone for murder or anything but if your for instance were not flattering enough upon an encounter with them ( even you were not the main focus of thier enquires ) , they could go out of thier way to make life difficult for you as a motorist or something , be over zealous when it comes to minor infringements etc , if you end up with a conviction , they can with impugnity arrest you on suspicion of the most spurious and trumped up of charges , give you a few hours in the cell and interview about the most trivial of crap , all because you lack credibility from a previous conviction , i know all this because i have experienced it myself and i didnt complain to any ombudsman , i merley bruised a local guards ego by pointing out to them a contradiction in something they had said in the past , i lost a case several years ago , recieved a conviction and now the guards have increased liberty to make life difficult for me if they feel like it , only once since my conviction has this happened but it would never have been tried on were it not for my previous conviction

you have nothing to warrant a complaint to the ombudsman and to reiterate , even you do , think long and hard about what you will be letting yourself in for should you decide to become idealistic about justice , justice is a frivelous thing , bad people often escape it ( with the help of the guards ) and good people often get the book thrown at them because the guards are indifferent to the morality of the situation

MagicSean

/rant

irishh_bob

MagicSean wrote: »

/rant

where

FreudianSlippers

If anything, this thread is a prime example of why we have the 'no legal advice' rule.

The nonsense you get sometimes is hilarious and scary.

monkeypants

Reminds me of Nightjack's Survival Guide for Decent Folk. It's a couple of years old and UK-based, but still relevant. See the part about significant statements.

jblack

monkeypants wrote: »

Reminds me of Nightjack's Survival Guide for Decent Folk. It's a couple of years old and UK-based, but still relevant. See the part about significant statements.

^ That's very dangerous advice. Encouraging perjury.

Making up stuff in a statement, or worse still under examination, is not recommended.

FreudianSlippers

monkeypants wrote: »

Reminds me of Nightjack's Survival Guide for Decent Folk. It's a couple of years old and UK-based, but still relevant. See the part about significant statements.

Awful stuff.

irishh_bob

jblack wrote: »

^ That's very dangerous advice. Encouraging perjury.

Making up stuff in a statement, or worse still under examination, is not recommended.

seems to largely suggest that you keep your mouth shut during a police interview