dark_horse, thanks for your considered posts. However, in post 128 you imply I do not appreciate the difference between unreasonable violence and reasonable force. I think you have misread my post (and in any case I don't understand why you lumped it with a quotation from OxonCantab which raised a rather different point).

I do indeed appreciate the difference and it was precisely the motivation for my post. It seems to me that there is doubt in this case as to whether the man's actions were reasonable or not. I say that because people are discussing it, and you yourself (in your post just now) allow for the possibility that an assault may have taken place! In such a situation, it seems to me that a court is the right place for the matter to be resolved.

That's all I meant, and it's also what I believe I said.