Wednesday 25 March 2015

Such A Pleasant Family Gathering…

A woman says she feels let-down after prosecutors dropped criminal charges against a man accused of assaulting her.
Jo Cooper was taken to hospital with a black eye and bruising to her face after an incident at a family party.
Her brother-in-law, Paul Cross, 44, of Capel Avenue, Peacehaven, denied one count of assault against her and was due to stand trial in a crown court.
But prosecutors dropped their case, saying conflicting statements would make it hard to challenge his claim that he was acting in self-defence.
Blimey! Of course, this won’t sit well with the outraged kinfolk:
Mrs Cooper’s mother, Lea Mylton-Thorley, who was at the party, said: “We did not get a chance [to talk to police].
“They took an hour to get ambulance and police there.”
“They went straight into him and they did not have any interest in anybody else.”
That must have been some party!

In the details, all suddenly becomes clear…
Sussex Police said officers attending the scene were “led to believe” Mrs Cooper was the assailant and she was too “intoxicated” to give a clear account herself.
Inspector Rob Lovell added: “It is not clear whether if the man had initially been identified as the suspect by those at the scene, the case would have progressed to Crown Court, but we respect our CPS colleagues’ decision to discontinue it.”
Which can be read any number of ways, can’t it?

3 comments:

James Higham said...

How do we miss out on those sorts of parties?

Ian B said...

Oh, that's nothing. Many years ago (this is back in the 80s) the sister of one of my closest schoolfriends got married. Big Irish family. At the reception, after much booze, one of his brothers tried to sexually assault another of his sisters, and in the ensuing fracas another friend of mine (a guest) got stabbed.

Even your regular Tales From Chavland rarely top that Julia. :)

JuliaM said...

"How do we miss out on those sorts of parties?"

Just lucky, I guess..? ;)

"Even your regular Tales From Chavland rarely top that Julia. :)"

Blimey! You're right!