Pubwatch campaign backed by top prosecutor

Calls from the country's top prosecutor to end the use of cautions for serious assaults could help the fight for justice for licensees who are attacked.

That's according to Steve Baker, chairman of National Pubwatch, which is campaigning for anyone who attacks hosts or pub staff to face court under the Court Not Caution campaign.

However, Baker said he'd write to Keir Starmer, director of public prosecutions, urging him to go further.

Starmer told the Times​ he wanted to review the use of cautions for 40,000 assaults each year. This includes the case reported in the Morning Advertiser of pub manager Jean Rowe, whose attacker was let off with a caution.

Starmer said no offence above the level of common assault should be dealt with out-of-court.

Baker welcomed the comments but said many common assaults of licensees deserve to be dealt with in court.

Baker said: "Although this is very welcome and raises the debate to a wider audience, as far as I'm concerned we still need to be pushing hard to make sure that the police and Crown Prosecution Service look carefully at the impact on victims when considering whether it is in the public interest to prosecute or caution the offender."

Baker said the term Common Assault may sound minor but the affect on the victim both physically and emotionally can be devastating.

The issue will also be covered in BBC's Panorama show tonight.

So far 93 MPs have signed a Commons Early Day Motion, submitted by National Pubwatch president Nigel Evans, backing the Court Not Caution campaign.

• Sign the Court Not Caution petition to the Prime Minister​.