If you are worried that you are about to be charged with a criminal offence, you may think that you need to hire a lawyer.

Unfortunately, although a lawyer will be able to help you once the charges are laid, your lawyer can't really stop the police from arresting you or charging you with an offence.

Nor, for that matter, can the complainant. Even if the person who is the alleged victim of the crime no longer desires that charges continue against you, they cannot stop those charges from going ahead.

The reality is that no one can really stop the police from laying charges. The victim does not control the process, the police do. Unfortunately for you, that may mean simply waiting to see what the police decide to do. A lawyer may be able to help you exert pressure on the police officers in charge of your case - they may be able to extract more information from police officers than you can.