Actual bodily harm domestic assault charge withdrawn following negotiations on the morning of the hearing at Young Local Court

Share This Article

Our client is a 40-year-old, youth support officer who works as a volunteer for a multitude of not-for-profit organisations; He originally resides in USA and was in NSW on a work visa.

During our client’s time in NSW, he became intimate with his now ex-partner who he was with for a period of 2 years. One evening while on a camping trip our client was unable to locate his partner at their tent and to his disbelief eventually found her in bed with another man.

Upon being discovered our client’s ex-partner and the other male became enraged and reported the incident to police including claims that our client assaulted the man, as a result our client was arrested and charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and intimidation.

Our client shopped around for criminal lawyers, and after having many consultations with lawyers in Sydney, he contacted CDLA and spoke to our Principal lawyer Jimmy who patiently advised and guided him in relation to his case.

Once he decided to proceed with CDLA, our criminal defence lawyer Alex led the way. Our Alex worked tirelessly for months in preparing for his case. Our client understandably had a lot riding given that a criminal conviction for this domestic violence assault charge would mean that he would lose his job and potentially his visa.

After pleading not guilty to the charges, our Alex appeared at the Young Local Court in NSW where the case was to proceed to a defended hearing. Before proceedings, our Alex managed to negotiate the withdrawal of the more serious charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm concerning the other male whom our client’s now ex partner was sleeping with. In the result, the other charge of intimidation proceeded to sentence where our Alex convinced the Magistrate not to impose a conviction against our client.

Accordingly, our client walked away from court with a non-conviction section 10, finally putting this matter to an end. Our client was very pleased with the outcome as he was able to finally move on.