This assignment provides a scenario in which Joe finds himself relying on self defence after a late night walk home, Joe was crossing the road away from a group of youths that then started shouting abuse at him. One youth then followed and approached Joe, as he approached Joe then swung a punch harder than expected and knocked the youth unconscious. As the defendant Joe will need to be advised on his defence and this assignment will consider relevant law from previous cases and apply it to the material facts and various issues within his case.
Particular guidelines have been put in place by The CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) to set the standard of self defence and the grounds upon which it can be claimed; it must be in order to defend one's self, family, property or in order to prevent crime or apprehend an offender.
The first issue that must be taken into consideration would be the fact the youths crossed the road when they saw Joe cross to then start shouting abuse at him, for anyone late at night this would be very intimidating. A particular case that would highlight a similar situation would be R V Martin [2002] where by Tony Martin lived alone in an isolated farm house, due to the state of the property it was host to numerous break ins. One night 2 males aged
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This can result in a very strong, very quick snap decision. In order to highlight this the case of Beckford V The Queen [1988] would be a prime example. The appellant was a Police Officer raiding a house believed to house an armed individual, as they entered he believed he heard a gunshot and so he fired resulting in the death of the gun man. Upon later inspection there appeared to be no firearm in sight. It was held that Beckford was found guilty of murder however it was later quashed after an appeal on the grounds of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act (2008) S. 76(3)