Intentionally choke, stalk/intimidate and AVO charges successfully defended and dismissed at Wollongong Court

Our 34-year-old client is a truck driver who was charged by police with a count of intentionally choke, another count of stalk/intimidate, and a breach of AVO offence. After about two years in a relationship with his partner the alleged victim, they broke up when she complained to police that our client had abused her by throwing her to the ground, choking her throat.

After making these allegations about our client to police, the police took out an AVO against our client. That AVO prevented contact and prevented him from going near where she lives.

Police later alleged that our client then breached his AVO by driving past her home during the AVO.

He called our CDLA legal hotline and was immediately put through to our specialise criminal defence lawyer Ahmad Faraj who specialises in DV assault type hearings. Ahmad found lots of issues in the prosecution evidence, which strengthened the defence case due to the way the defence was being carefully prepared by Ahmad.

All charges were fiercely defended on a ‘not guilty’ plea at the Wollongong Local Court.

On the day of hearing, and after extensive preparation and planning for the hearing date by Ahmad, the prosecution declined to withdraw the charges after negotiation attempts by our team.

As the hearing commenced in court, Ahmad vigorously cross examined the alleged victim as to every single piece of inconsistency found from Ahmad’s careful review of the police evidence,

Some of the inconsistencies included the long delay in her complaint to police and timing coinciding with the time of the break up of the relationship, inadequate investigation conducted by police who should have timestamped photos they relied on but failed to, the police officer’s evidence in the witness box and his inconsistencies were raised as to photos and their timestamps.

The defence case was run on the basis that the alleged victim had a motive to not be completely honest in order to cause harm to our client due to him breaking up with her.

After clearly pointing out significant inconsistencies and issues in the police evidence during cross examination and closing submissions by our Ahmad, the Court ultimately found our client not guilty and dismissed all of the charges, including the AVO.

Our client was free to leave without any further stresses of court proceedings and charges looming over his head.

It is not uncommon for alleged victims to make unfounded or fake complaints to police out of spite or revenge against an accused person. It does occur, and it is important to be able to get legal advice as early as possible and before deciding whether to speak to police.

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