No Prosecutions over James Parkes

[fredv3b]

You may remember back in October a gang of youths beat up James Parkes, a trainee PC, outside a gay bar in Liverpool. He suffered multiple skull fractures and spent several weeks in hospital. (It was presumed to be homophobic but that has been disputed). The police arrested 15 youths but the CPS has now decided there is insufficient evidence to charge any of them. (Full details here.)

My question is this, how does no-one see anything well enough to charge any of them with anything? I can understand how for some it may be clear that they were there but not if they did actually do anything, but for all of them? I'd be tempted to consider homophobic police officers not doing a proper thorough investigation as a reason but Parkes was one of them and the Police do stick together.

[Genersis]

At a guess:
Its hard to get physical evidence outside a well troden public area and prove its not coincidental.
As for witnesses, most were probably drunk to a degree, which makes them hard to prove reliable.
Multiple culprits tend to make it harder to convict someone, especialy if they were all wearing things to cover there faces to a degree(like hoodies, which are awfully common)

But who knows?!:confused:
All i know is that this is terible news indeed!:mad:

[marshlander]

Maybe I've misunderstood this, but I thought that as the law stands in England and Wales members of the group who don't actually strike a blow are also liable to prosecution?

[fredv3b]

That's perfectly true, but only if the outcome was reasonably foreseeable by members of a group. They would be guilty if it was clear that the group was going to beat someone up and the failed to leave it. If however the assault followed some chance event, then only those who actually struck a blow could be guilty.