At the age of 18 I found myself in a terrible situation. I was walking to school one day with a friend and a gang of five from another school had a problem with my friend and wanted a fight. I did my best to stay in the way like a human shield, but one of them jumped on my back and pulled me away – at the same time my friend got hit in the face.
Desperate to protect my friend I spun around and hit the one on my back in the face. I later lied to the police that I spun around in an attempt to break free and that the contact was accidentally. It was a full-blown punch and it was the only lie I told the police, because it was plausible and would put me in a better light.
Later I was coming home from school and I had walked a slightly different way because I was walking with Diane – a girl who I was attracted to at the time. When I came back round the end of her street and crossed the next one I saw the gang again waiting on this street. Knowing where they lived and where they went to school, they had no reason to be on that street other than to be lying in wait for me or my friend or both of us. So I had to wait around, just in case my friend was coming home.
They saw me, and made their way over. Surrounded I was backed against a fence. Two of them were attacking me and the other three were hemming me in. Scared and not seeing any immediate way out I quickly realised my only chance was to drop the ringleader who was right in front of me. I unleashed a volley of three hard punches, each of which hit in exactly the same place. The ringleader fell and I saw a gap and took it and ran home.
I found out later that the ringleader suffered a concussion as a consequence of hitting the kerb on the way down. Later I was arrested on two charges; one for the morning and one for the afternoon.
After several months of going backwards and forwards the case collapsed in the crown court because the first two witnesses were also chronological. First up was the one I had hit in the morning who told an exaggerated story to make me look as bad as possible and then the second witness was the ringleader who took a similar line. Only they hadn’t matched up their stories and the holes were as wide as the universe! At that point the prosecution barrister said that there was no point in continuing and I was acquitted.
Acquitted, that word has always rankled me, because for me it doesn’t mean “not guilty”, it means due to insufficient or inadequate evidence the case collapsed and so for me there has always been a question mark over my guilt.
But at least I was vindicated and I do not have a criminal record.
I assure you that I am not a thug and actually prefer every other option unless backed into a corner.
As always stay safe and well my friends.
NB: the picture is not of the school I went to.
