Our 35-year old client is from originally from the Fhilippines. He works as an engineer and is married with a young child. The police attended his home where him and his wife were following a heated argument that got physically aggressive. The police took his wife’s side and charged our client with a common assault offence in addition to an apprehended domestic violence order. He was arrested and taken back to the police station where he refused to give police an interview- a right that any accused person has (to remain silent).
The police alleged that during a heated argument between our client and his wife, he pushed and punched her in the face. This was his wife’s version which she gave to police via video when police first attended their home that night.
What actually occurred was that during the argument, his wife threw boxes at our client which hit him. in the same moment as the boxed hit our client, our client immediately acted in self defence by pushing her cheek away from him to protect himself. Self-defence is a lawful excuse to an assault which results in a not guilty verdict in court according to law.
Our client contacted our CDLA office and was immediately provided with a consult with our senior criminal defence lawyers Keiran Khan. Keiran patiently listened to our client’s account of what happened. She also took our client through how the law works with self defence and the court process. Keiran then immediately commenced the crucial preparation phase of the case in strengthening the defence case and preparing for the hearing after pleading not guilty to the charge and defending the AVO.
Keiran even took further steps to try to negotiate with the police to get the charge and AVO withdrawn early by drafting and sending detailed legal representation (formal letter to negotiate). Unfortunately the police refused to drop the charge and AVO. This was at least worth a good shot trying as it could have saved our client from the expense and stresses of going to a defended hearing.
On the day of the defended hearing at the Hornsby Local Court, Keiran fought fiercely in defending the allegations for our client. She picked out all the inconsistencies in the prosecution witnesses including the alleged victim’s version of events.
In the result, the Hornsby Magistrate was persuaded thanks to Keiran’s preparation and strong advocacy to dismiss the common assault charge and AVO on the basis of a ‘not guilty’ verdict. This was a fantastic result after the prosecutions every attempt at trying to convict our client who was innocent all along.