Blue’s Lee Ryan could face a new trial over assault charge

nme.com:

Blue‘s Lee Ryan could be faced with a new trial regarding his incident on a British Airways flight last summer.Ryan successfully applied to withdraw his guilty plea for assaulting a police officer after sharing that he only entered that plea following advice from his solicitor at the time.

As BBC reports, Deputy chief magistrate Tan Ikram ruled there was “real doubt” whether Ryan had made an informed admission of guilt or was following instructions.A decision on whether or not he will face a new trial over the alleged assault will be made at a fresh hearing in July.At his hearing in January, Ryan pled guilty to the assault charge after following the advice his solicitor, Mike Rainford, gave him at the time.On his hearing on Tuesday, June 13, It was revealed by his new solicitor, Keima Payton, that Ryan has an autistic spectrum disorder.

The Blue member also has “slow processing skills” leading to “impairments in understanding what is said to him” according to a psychological report that was done.Payton told the court that Ryan was sent text messages by his previous solicitor on the day of the hearing in January that showed Ryan was made to feel like he “had to” plead guilty, “even though he (the police officer) had me by the neck”.

She added that body-cam footage may have helped Ryan claim self-defense but it was not presented to him in time before his court appearance making him unable to properly consider it.Speaking about his previous solicitor, Ryan told the court: “I found him quite dismissive and rude, quite condescending.” According to Ryan, he had also assured him that the charge would be dropped before the next hearing.