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Our client is a 41 year old Vietnamese woman who is in Australia on a student visa.

She was living with her husband in Carlton but moved to Melbourne after the court proceedings started.

Our client has a limited grasp of English.

In June 2018, our client got into an argument and fight with her mother-in-law and her husband. Our client called the police as she was the one assaulted and also sustained scratches to her face.

Our client was also subjected to domestic violence at home over a course of time.

Upon arrival, and due to limited grasp of English, our client failed to explain the complete situation to police.

The police then spoke with the husband who said that it was the other way round and our client was the one who attacked.

Based on that, the police charged our client with common assault under s61 of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW). Our client appeared at the Sutherland Local Court where she entered the plea of not guilty and the matter proceeded to a hearing.

On the day of the hearing, the prosecution was ready to proceed with the hearing with all the prosecution witnesses available at court.

Our Sydney team of criminal defence lawyers spoke with the prosecutor and explained the major flaws in the prosecution case, namely that the wrong person was charged and that our client was in fact the victim in the whole situation.

further, our client’s subject to domestic violence was also outlined to the prosecution.

We went through pointing out some of the strengths of the defence case, in that our client was acting in self-defence.

The prosecution were eventually convinced to withdraw the charges on the basis that the AVO be consented to on a without admissions basis for an agreed period of time as to agreed conditions.

The prosecution agreed to this after carefully considering our teams reasons for why the case should be withdrawn.

Our client was very pleased that she avoided a criminal record.

She also avoided the stress of a hearing.

She was extremely happy with the outcome as this meant that she did not have to worry about losing her job or her visa because of a conviction.

She was also pleased that she could move on with her life, move away to Melbourne and get away from the violence she was subjected to.

Sometimes the police do withdraw domestic violence charges early in the proceedings. This can be achieved through effective negotiations by an experienced sydney criminal defence lawyer.

AUTHOR Jimmy Singh

Mr. Jimmy Singh is the Principal Lawyer at Criminal Defence Lawyers Australia - Leading Criminal Lawyers in Sydney, Delivering Exceptional Results in all Australian Criminal Courts.

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