Tierney, Stephen

Stephen Tierney was convicted in April 2005 of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and received a community punishment order of 180 hours. Mr Tierney was also ordered to pay £1,000 in compensation to the victim and £1,200 towards prosecution costs.

The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in January 2006.

Following review, the CCRC concluded that the trial judge had erred in not providing the jury with the opportunity to return an alternative verdict of common assault using his powers pursuant to section 6 of the Criminal Law Act 1967.

Common assault was made out on the facts of the case and it was appropriate for the jury to have had this alternative verdict before it.

There were clear indications that the situation which had been outlined in the case of R v Coutts (2006) may have occurred, namely that the jury convicted of a more serious charge because it did not believe that the defendants should escape altogether.

The CCRC referred the conviction in December 2008.

The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in October 2009 and substituted it for one of common assault.