When Helen stabbed Rob (Part Two)

Crime analysis: Rob lives! Abigail Bright, barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, and Edward Grange, partner at Corker Binning, two practitioners in serious crime, discuss what this all means for Helen Titchener, nee Archer.

What’s the latest?

This piece follows yesterday’s hotly anticipated episode of The Archers. For more background to this ‘case’ see ‘When Helen stabbed Rob (Part One)’.

Monday’s listener heard that Rob remains alive! ‘Dear God, he’s breathing’. With Kirsty’s words, listeners learned Rob survived Sunday’s stabbing. Listeners had thought (hoped?) he was no more. Paramedics came in the aftermath of a violent struggle between Rob and Helen. Rob had presented Helen with a knife and the words, ‘You're nothing without me, Helen. Nothing’. Immediately before the struggle, Helen blurted out ‘You’re a monster!’ Helen emerged from it with but blood on her sleeve as spied by Kirsty—and two years’ worth of studied manipulation at Rob’s hands.

Helen hasn’t (yet) killed Rob. Is she in the clear?

No. Helen’s journey on the course of the criminal justice system has only just started. Paramedics arriving at Blossom Hill Cottage—the locus in quo—summed up the seriousness of Rob’s injuries when one said he was ‘lucky to be alive’. Police attended. Helen was arrested for what police said was ‘wounding’ (with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, we surmise). Wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent is an offence contrary to section 18 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861. In the event of conviction for that offence, a maximum sentence of life imprisonment is reserved for the worst examples of such offending. Police have yet to refer Helen’s case to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for a decision as to what, if any, criminal charge is appropriate against Helen. We would advise Helen that she should be prepared for the CPS, if Rob does not die of his injuries, to arrive at the view that the appropriate charge is one of attempted murder. In principle, there