Tony Montgomery, instructed by Amosu Robinshaw Solicitors, secured the acquittal of his client on a charge of GBH s18 wounding with intent and unlawful wounding in the alternative, after an 11-day trial at Kingston Crown Court.
Prior to the trial, guilty pleas were entered to violent disorder and threatening with an offensive weapon (a “Zombie” knife). These pleas related to the same incident in question.
It was common ground that the victim was stabbed in the head not by the defendant but by the defendant’s companion. The prosecution argued joint enterprise. The defence case was that the defendant had gone to the location in question with two friends intending, on his part, to mediate between opposing factions; that at the scene he did not assist or encourage his friend to stab the victim, nor did he intend to assist or encourage and nor did he intend the victim to be caused really serious harm.
The main evidence was CCTV which captured almost everything except the actual stabbing itself. The CCTV showed that the defendant was walking away and looking in the opposite direction at the material time when his friend, for the first time in his case, produced a knife from his person and set off in pursuit of the victim. The stabbing occurred out of sight of the defendant. There was an abundance of weapons on display in the earlier part of the incident. In the defendant’s group there were three knives and a gun and in the opposing group a metal pole and a chain.
The prosecution considered that the CCTV allowed them to put their case of joint enterprise on no fewer than five separate footings: that the defendant intended by his presence to assist or encourage the stabbing by giving moral support to his friend; or by contributing to the force of numbers; or by directing things; or by assisting in separating and isolating the victim; or by preventing the victim’s friends from coming to his defence.
The jury delivered a unanimous Not Guilty verdict.