Telford man has assault conviction overturned
A Telford man convicted of a violent assault on a woman in her own home has had his name cleared by top judges on appeal.
Karl Gardner, 33, of Bishopdale, Telford, stood trial at Shrewsbury Crown Court in April over an alleged attack at an Albrighton home of a couple in May 2009.
The jury cleared him of aggravated burglary and of wounding the man, who prosecutors said had been attacked with a hammer.
However, he was found guilty of assaulting the woman, causing actual bodily harm.
Crown lawyers alleged that Gardner and two accomplices, one of them a woman, had burst into the home before unleashing their attack, which was said to have been witnessed by the male victim's 12-year-old son.
Jurors were told Gardner was present while his female accomplice attacked the woman with a knife.
However, his legal team challenged the "safety" of his conviction and Lord Justice Davis, sitting at London's Criminal Appeal Court with Mr Justice Nicol and Judge James Wide QC, agreed that the jury's verdicts were fundamentally illogical and inconsistent.
"In the circumstances of the present case, we cannot be satisfied that this conviction is safe and the appeal is therefore allowed."
