Judicial review overturns caution in assault case

A man has successfully fought to have his attacker taken to court after police initially issued a caution.
Christopher Watts was given a conditional caution after attacking John Guest at his home in April 2008. Mr Guest fought for him to be taken to court, winning a judicial review.
In September, Watts pleaded guilty to actual bodily harm when the case was eventually taken before the courts and was given a six-month suspended jail sentence and ordered to pay £1,000 compensation.
The attacker was originally given a conditional caution and a £200 compensation bill, with the caution overturned in March. Mr Guest said the money was not even sufficient to cover the cost of cleaning the blood from his carpets.
Professor Chris Lewis of the Institute of Criminal Justice at Portsmouth University has praised Mr Guest’s efforts.
“It’s very uncommon. A decision such as a conditional caution is usually regarded as the end of a case. But taking it to judicial review is a very uncommon procedure and it’s very good for the community that the victim did that.”
The outcome follows concerns raised last week that cautions are being over-used by officers to deal with serious assaults.
A Dorset Police spokesman said: “The decision to pursue Mr Watts via a conditional caution disposal was made by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), after consultation with Dorset Police officers.
“Both the Dorset CPS and Dorset Police agree that this was a wrong decision and Mr Watts was subsequently prosecuted for an offence of causing Mr Guest actual bodily harm.
“Mr Guest has received an apology for the original decision from Dorset Police and we have confirmed that this case was not suitable for such an outcome.
“New procedures have been put in place to ensure that similar cases are not considered for this type of out of court disposal in the future.”