Appriate force laws in the UK

Here's a situation...

I'm walking along the lovely streets of London, with a baseball bat. Suddenly an enemy from school and a few of his mates come up to me, and start some trouble.

If they start a fight with me, am I allowed to smack them on the head with my baseball bat until they no longer pose a threat? Or would I have to risk getting stabbed and sort it out with my fists?

You are allowed to use reasonable force to protect yourself,

But i really would suggest that if you are having problems with bullys then you find some other way of sorting it out,

Using a base ball bat really is only going to end up in you or someone else getting hurt,

Its not a good situation and i feel for you having these guys who think they are cool coming and starting on you for no reason,

If they have a knife i would try the best i could to not get to near them,

how about making sure you also hang out with a number of friends so your not caught on your own by these guys?



[edit on 5-9-2005 by asala]

well i was walking with a mate the other day and saw this w****r on a bike with a mate and he said hello, we say "yes yes" and he goes "shut up! don't talk to me!" which is completely out of order.

it's been a while since he's given us trouble, and we really want to beat him up. i suppose we'll just have to provoke him enough to hit us first so we can smakc him up without any weapons.

Originally posted by mashup
Here's a situation...

I'm walking along the lovely streets of London, with a baseball bat. Suddenly an enemy from school and a few of his mates come up to me, and start some trouble.

If they start a fight with me, am I allowed to smack them on the head with my baseball bat until they no longer pose a threat? Or would I have to risk getting stabbed and sort it out with my fists?

Under Brithish law, it would be deemed to be 'premeditated' if you were already carrying the weapon..however, if you happened to 'find' it on the street and use it to defend yourself against overwhelming force then it would be legally justified self-defence.


[edit on 6-9-2005 by timski]

..The only other justfiable reason here in jolly Britain would be to jump a queue