Not Guilty for Armed with Intent to Commit Indictable Offence charge
Our client was found not guilty following a defended hearing run by our team of specialist criminal defence lawyers for the charge of armed with a hammer with an intention to commit an indictable offence being intimidation.
The offence of armed with intent to commit indictable offence comes under section 114(1)(a) Crimes Act 1900 (NSW). It carries a maximum punishment of up to 7 years imprisonment and is considered a very serious offence.
Our client was only released less than one month from prison while he was on parole when he attended his girlfriend’s home for a visit. Whilst there both him and her became drunk and he was intoxicated from both drugs and alcohol. She alleged and told police that he was swinging a hammer towards her. This caused her to be intimidated and fear him.
The hearing at Parramatta Local Court went for two days. During the hearing our specialist defence lawyers thoroughly cross examined the police witnesses including an eye witness who said she saw our client swinging the hammer towards the alleged victim. Following our defence teams cross examination of this witness, the Magistrate found that the eye witnesses evidence was not reliable as her evidence was inconsistent in many respects creating doubt in the police evidence.
Further to this, the Magistrate accepted our defence specialist’s submission that our client was unable to form an intention to intimidate the alleged victim because of his level of intoxication from drugs and alcohol. On this basis he was found not guilty even after what appeared to be a very strong police case at the beginning.