Hi I'm struggling to find info on what would happen in this situation: Character 'A' attacks and inflicts grievous bodily harm on 'B'. 'A' then calls an ambulance and turns himself in to the police. 'B' tells the police he doesn't want to pursue it because it was a 'settling of a score' kind of situation and 'B' wants to forgive 'A'. I've read that it doesn't necessarily matter what 'B' wants. Apparently if it's a pretty serious assault (which it is) then the police or the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will probably want to take it to court. However, that's if there is a 'suspect'. In my situation they have a confession already. All that needs deciding is the severity of the punishment if any and I'm not sure how that would happen and what would be the realistic sentencing. Any help would be huge, thanks very much!
This is not direct answer to what Lylun asks, but... There it this book Wade & Gibbon: The Crime Writer's Casebook. It gives a lot of knowledge - both current and historical - about things related to police work, laws, co-operation of different parts of justice... And it is not expensive. It might be helpful in this case. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37205465-a-straightforward-guide-to-the-crime-writers-casebook
I believe you are correct in that it doesn't really matter what 'B' wants. If a serious assault has been committed, a prosecution is highly likely to follow. I believe this was partly due to domestic abuse cases where the victim was often reluctant to press charges against the assailant for varying reasons. I've seen cases where the victim writes a letter to the court asking for leniency, however the sentencing can remain quite severe.
@Lylun - There might be a difference depending on what part of the UK you are dealing with. Scots law is different from English law in many respects. I'm not sure how laws operate in the other two parts of the UK, Wales and Northern Ireland.
In Finland we have all our laws in internet. Our Department of Justice administrates this web site... https://www.finlex.fi/fi/ https://www.finlex.fi/sv/ and a bit of it in English https://www.finlex.fi/en/ and links to French, German, Spanish, Russian and Japanese versions...* https://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/ ...where anyone can check anything when needed. I wonder if there is something like that in UK, USA, Germany, Australia, Canada, Ireland....? * Sorry, but it seems that we don't have Chinese, Arabic or other versions.
The UK has similar laws online - but its a case of knowing which legislation you want to look up - I'd probably start with PACE 1984 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/60/contents
