Former honorary police officer appeals assault conviction

Wednesday 14 March 2018

A 52-year-old former honourary police officer, who was found guilty of grave and criminal assault after she hit a builder with a tile in a disagreement over his work, has appealed her conviction in the Royal Court.

Lucille Anastasia Monks was sentenced to 12 months probation, and 120 hours of community service in September.

The case centred on an incident between Ms Monks and Gary Nicholson which occurred in September 2016. Mr Nicholson said Mrs Monks punched him several times, before hitting him across the neck with a tile. While Mrs Monks maintained her innocence throughout the case, she was eventually found guilty of the assault after a four-and-a-half day trial. 

Advocate Jane Martin appealed against the conviction in the Royal Court yesterday. 

She noted that although Mr Nicholson mentioned a number of punches, that he was hit at the back of the neck with a demonstration tile with metal edge, and hit on the shoulder with boulder thrown at him, no injuries were recorded on him. She said: "He was hit by two weapons and yet not a scratch, not a bruise."

Advocate Martin also said that Mrs Monks was originally charged with common assault. She wasn't aware until late in June 2017 that this charge had been changed to grave and criminal assault.

She added that the prosecution did not clarify its case, and changed it throughout the trial.

The defence advocate said that the prosecution had failed to put its case to Mrs Monks during cross-examination. She said it was unfair on Mrs Monks that the prosecution led on "evidence from various people but never put it to her." The result, according to Advocate Martin, was that the magistrate "accepted all of the prosecution’s evidence despite this not being put to defense witnesses." "He believed everybody," Advocate Martin said before adding that the prosecution witnesses must have been in a "parallel universe" at the time of the offence as "they all say something completely different to another witness."

Advocate Martin said that "lots went wrong in the police investigation." "My submission is that there should have been a better police investigation in the matter and if there had been, the matter would have been completely different."

Advocate Martin pointed out alleged inaccuracies in the victim’s statement saying that it was "impossible for everything to have happened the way the prosecution’s witnesses said it happened." Referring to Mr Nicholson's account that Mrs Monks threw a boulder at his shoulder, Advocate Martin said that "four prosecution witnesses did not mention Mrs Monks bending down to pick up the stone and throw it at him, despite having a clear view... Someone would have seen some aspect of that. This is not the sort of stone you can hide."

Advocate Martin is due to conclude her address to the Bailiff, Sir William Bailhache and Jurats Jane Ronge and Paul Nicolle this morning. Crown Advocate Chris Baglin will then address the court to put forward the prosecution's case.