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Assault With Intent To Have Sexual Intercourse – s 61K Crimes Act 1900

Our Sydney Criminal lawyers are hand selected for their high level of experience and expertise in sexual assault charges with a focus on getting charges dropped or even downgraded early. They take a hands-on approach from the start to the end of the case.

Your Options in Court

The court will find you innocent of this charge if the police are unable to prove ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ any one of the following:

  • You had an intention to have ‘sexual intercourse’ with the person
  • You intended to cause ‘actual bodily harm’, or at the time of causing it, you had realised that the particular kind of harm in fact caused might have been caused by you to the other person
  • You threatened, by means of an ‘offensive weapon or instrument’, to cause ‘actual bodily harm’ on the other person. The offensive weapon is not required to be produced to amount to the threat.

Defences to this charge

The following are some commonly used defences to this charge which can prove your innocence:

  • No intention. Whether you had the intention to have sexual intercourse can be inferred by the court from your conduct and anything you said to police or other witnesses. Let our experienced specialist lawyers look into your case to give you some realistic and practical advice. In some cases intoxication from alcohol or drugs can be a complete defence to prove an absence of this intention.
  • Duress or Necessity
  • Causation. If more than one person was involved in the assault causing the actual bodily harm on the alleged victim, it may be someone else’s, and not your conduct that ended up causing the actual bodily harm on the alleged victim.
  • No threat used. Either it was someone else, and not you, who threatened the alleged victim, or there was no threat at all used by you.

Whatever your case, or no matter how complex it is, our experienced expert team of lawyers have a proven track record of winning. They are considered leaders in the industry who are best equipped to giving you realistic and practical advice on your best possible defences.

Before pleading guilty it is important you receive accurate and realistic advice on your strongest possible defences and the best way to move forward with your case. However, the following are important ways to prepare in maximising the best possible outcome to your case if pleading guilty.

25% discount on punishment

It is critical as to the point in time you do plead guilty. The earlier you enter the plea of guilty the more discount from the punishment you can be entitled to, up to 25% if you plead guilty in the Local Court!

The discount generally causes a more favourable and lesser serious punishment which is why it’s critical to receive timely and realistic advice as early as possible from an experienced accredited sexual assault lawyer.

Negotiate to drop charges

Yes, you are able to negotiate your charges before you plead guilty. Having an experienced senior specialist defence lawyer will definitely maximise your chances at succeeding.

An experienced expert on these charges is often able to downgrade or even convince the police to drop them by pointing out all the holes in their evidence before approaching police and DPP on why it should be dropped.

Our experienced senior lawyers have successfully convinced police to drop and downgrade charges for over 20 years.

Negotiate facts

Before being punished by the Judge, he or she will first read the facts of what you did which is usually first drafted by police. You are actually able to negotiate and change this to put you in a better light, expressing more of the truth of what happened rather than just the police version. If successful, your punishment will usually be much more lenient.

This is often achieved by our experienced specialist lawyers by carefully reading the police evidence, pointing out all holes in their evidence before tactfully approaching them with reasons why there needs to be changes.

Good character references

Our experienced team of lawyers are experts in guiding you on gathering exceptionally glowing references that will reflect your good nature and what you have achieved in life to date.

A well drafted reference from certain people in your life can create an exceptionally good impression of you to a Judge. Our expert lawyers review each individual reference and provide feedback to ensure each reference has the right format and perfectly covers everything it should, including your remorse, insight, and embarrassment.

Psychologist reports

Each case is different, and for this reason, your experienced specialist lawyer will determine whether a report be obtained from a psychiatrist, neuropsychologist, clinical psychologist or other expert best able to provide a report to the court.

A medical report with a proper treatment plan has enormous benefits to your case which include:

  • Ability to diagnose you with a mental condition in which case your punishment will generally be reduced depending on the extent of the condition which can be clarified if your lawyer asks the right questions to the medical expert.
  • Provides a sensible explanation, not justification, for your conduct which can express your side of the story and what you were thinking and going through at the time. This can reduce your punishment.
  • It allows you to express your embarrassment, remorse and insight of what you did which can further reduce the punishment you end up getting by the judge.
  • Demonstrates all the steps you took since your conduct to treat yourself and get back on the right track to rehabilitation. Showing prospects of rehabilitation generally reduced your punishment.

Specialist Criminal Lawyers have been using expert medical reports for decades. Their specialist lawyers only use a hand selected panel of a few of the best industry leading medical experts in Australia for court purpose reports.

Maximum penalty

The charge of assault with intent to have sexual intercourse carries a maximum of 20 years in prison although this maximum is reserved only for the worst kind of offenders for this charge. Court don’t normally give maximum punishments out, and there are a number of other options of punishment available instead of full time prison.

Types of Penalties

The following are the different options of punishment the Judge can give you:

  1. Section 10 Dismissal
  2. Conditional Release Order
  3. Fine
  4. Community Correction Order
  5. Intensive Correction Order
  6. Full Time Imprisonment

Which option you will get depends on many factors such as the one’s noted above.

It is critical to have an experienced accredited specialist defence lawyer who can guide you on the right path with realistic and practical advice in a timely manner, and with a strong presence in court to give compelling submissions on your behalf, maximising your chances of getting the best possible outcome for your case.