Quote Originally Posted by filbert View Post
In the case of defending my neighbour it would have been 2 counts of assault and one of grievous bodily harm, the main question I had to deal with was whether I genuinely believed she was in physical danger, my actions could quite easily be seen as unreasonable and the average everyday reasonable person probably wouldn't have put themselves in the situation, you are correct in your interpretation of reasonable force but other factors do have some bearing.
Someone smaller than me could be justified in using what I see as excessive force because of their own perception of the level of danger, whereas because I'm 6'4 and 120kg I am expected to be more measured in my response, in my eyes a pointy stabby thing like a knife or star picket is dangerous in any hand but because the offender was half my size my perception of the danger comes into play.
yup. that sounds like any "reasonable persons" educated opinion. sounds like you were justified.