Court case[1984] 1 WLR 1172

Two police officers on patrol saw the appellant, Collins, and another woman in a street, and suspected that they were soliciting for prostitution. The other woman answered their questions, but Collins refused to speak to the officers and walked away. A policewoman followed her and, wishing to caution her, took hold of her arm to detain her; she had no intention of arresting her and no power to do so at that point. Collins swore at her and scratched the officer's arm with her fingernails. She was convicted of assaulting a police officer in the execution of her duty and appealed by case stated.

The Divisional Court allowed the appeal. Robert Goff L.J. explained that "the fundamental principle, plain and incontestable, is that every person's body is inviolate", so that any touching of another, however slight, may amount to a battery. Most physical contacts of ordinary life are not actionable because they fall within a general exception embracing all physical contact which is generally acceptable in the ordinary conduct of daily life, such as jostling in a crowd or touching a person to attract his attention. The policewoman's act went beyond that: she took hold of the appellant's arm to restrain her, not merely to attract her attention, when she had no power of arrest. That was a battery, so she was not acting in the execution of her duty, and the conviction could not stand.