Janick Fielding secures swift acquittal in six year old case

An elderly Chinese man in ill-health found himself involved in a road traffic accident. He was picked up by a passing ambulance, and shortly thereafter arrested by the police who thought he was a drink driver. Due to apparent breathing difficulties, however, they conveyed him straight to the hospital. Triage having established that he was not in immediate danger, he was searched, and a very considerable quantity of money was removed from his underwear. In all the circumstances, he had behaved very well, complying with all the instructions of the four officers around him, even though his understanding was limited. Then, whilst on a hospital trolley, being prepared for an ECG, he asked if he might call his wife. A 6ft officer of substantial build said, no. So, the man asked the nurse, and again the officer told him, no. He sat up and appeared agitated, and so, having formed the belief that his prisoner was about to effect a most unlikely escape, the officer decided to handcuff him. The defendant tried to resist and so the officer and his colleague decided that the best thing they could do was ‘take him to the floor’. This they failed to do in any orderly fashion, the officer both dislocating and fracturing his own knee in the process. When the nurse turned around, she noticed her patient appeared unconscious on the floor. Notwithstanding the size, limitations and quite obvious heart difficulties of a man who had been struggling for breath before being knocked out, he was the one who was prosecuted.

Years before the trial the police established that he had not been a drink driver and that all the money was lawfully his, the night’s takings from his own restaurant.

The jury established, in about 15 minutes, almost six years to the day, that he was not guilty too