Here's the BBC piece on the acquittal:
Man acquitted of harpoon attack
A man accused of firing a harpoon into a teenager's face has been cleared of all charges against him after a jury accepted he acted in self-defence.
Nathan Kirk was cleared of unlawfully possessing an offensive weapon after earlier being acquitted of one charge of grievous bodily harm with intent.
The 25-year-old, from Hungerford, Berkshire, was also cleared of grievous bodily harm, on Thursday.
The harpoon hit Matthew Hawkins in the face, causing him to lose an eye.
Nathan Kirk said he was acting in self-defence
Mr Kirk himself had been stabbed close to his heart during the fight in March 2003.
The jury at Reading Crown Court decided that the gun had been fired by Mr Kirk accidentally during the fight.*
He brought out the scuba gun when a gang, including the 15-year-old, arrived at his girlfriend's flat in Thatcham following an argument over vandalism to a telephone box.
During the brawl, it was fired and became lodged in the teenager's face.
'Overjoyed and relieved'
Hawkins' injury was so serious that he lost an eye and paramedics had to use bolt-cutters to cut off part of the three-pronged harpoon.
Mr Kirk left the court without commenting to reporters waiting outside, but a statement read by his solicitor Georgina Murray said: "He is overjoyed and relieved that this traumatic case has now come to an end.
"He now wants to put the past 14 months behind him and get his life back on track.
"He is eternally grateful to his mother, father, family and friends for their support during the most difficult period of his life so far."
The court was told how Mr Kirk opened the door of the flat to Hawkins, his half-brother Barry Lovegrove and his sister's boyfriend, Derek Watkins.
The trio punched and kicked him and stabbed him close to the heart.
He retreated inside and brought out the harpoon to frighten the gang, according to Michael Topolski QC, defending.
Hawkins, Lovegrove and Watkins were also charged in connection with the fight and tried at Reading Crown Court earlier this year.
Watkins, 37, of Thatcham, was discharged on all counts.
Hawkins was discharged on two counts but convicted of affray and given a community punishment and rehabilitation order.
Lovegrove, 28, of Thatcham, was jailed for 18 months for affray.
* No, they didn't. No way they believed that, although it's possible. What they really believed was that the law didn't leave them an opening to say he did it purposely without convicting him of a crime, so they used a bit of tactical fiction. Good on 'em. Jury Semi-Nullification.
**This sure makes it sound like he was attacked as soon as he opened the door, and we've already heard that the harpoon was next to the doorway. In other words, when Agricola says he went inside, that was probably a trip of a foot or two with three armed attackers right on his heels. No wonder he grabbed the harpoon.
The really dumb thing he did was open the door. But people do that every day. In a recent gun rag article, Mas Ayoob writes about a guy in Vermont who was the first to be targeted by the thrill-killers who ended up murdering two Dartmouth college professors in their home. This guy lived in the middle of nowhere, so they cut his phone lines at night and one of them went to the door to ask for help while the other stayed in the bushes. They told the police later that the one at the door was to rush the victim as soon as he opened the door and, with the long knife he was concealing behind his leg, stab him in the chest repeatedly. The second would ignore the initial victim and run past to find the rest of the family (the man's wife and young son.)
This didn't work out because the homeowner did two smart things:
1. Knowing he was isolated, he carried his Glock in his home.
2. He DID NOT OPEN THE DOOR for the teenager acting strangely on his doorstep.
He had a short negotiation with the teenager, offered to call a towing service, went to the phone to call the police instead, and discovered the dead phone. At that time, he went back to the door, where the teenager was screaming at him to open the door and threatening to break it down, and showed him the Glock. The two disappeared.
Unfortunately, their later victims weren't as well-prepared as that one.