Our client is a 53 year old woman who not only works full-time, but is also the sole carer for her autistic adult daughter was charged with two counts of common assault.
In early 2019, our client was charged with two counts of Common Assault (Domestic Violence related). This particular offence carries a maximum penalty of 2 years imprisonment and/or a $5,500 fine.
The offences were against her daughter involving assault with the use of a belt on two occasions. Our client’s daughter was not only autistic but had numerous disabilities which would result in her acting irrationally and violently towards our client at times. In addition, on occasions her daughter was very possessive and unreasonable towards our client.
Our client was described by others as always being a patient and calm person. On the weekend of the offences, our client’s daughter broke her two front teeth in order to get a reaction from our client. This is the context in which our client assaulted her daughter.
Overwhelmed with remorse and acknowledgment of her wrongdoing, our client reported herself to police immediately. She was then charged with the two assault offences.
That weekend, our client contacted our firm and spoke with our Criminal Defence Lawyer, Tayla Regan. Tayla immediately provided detailed advice and guidance. This included a lengthy list of materials for our client to get started in preparing for her case. On our client’s instructions, a plea of guilty was entered to the court before the matter proceeding to sentence at the
Given the extenuating circumstances of this case, a detailed affidavit was drafted and executed outlining those circumstances for the Magistrate to read. In addition, a compelling psychologist report, good character reference letters, a letter from her daughter and employment documents were also prepared for the sentence.
The case was prepared thoroughly from beginning to end.
Tayla represented our client at the Burwood Local Court where the case proceeded to sentence after all prepared material were tendered for the Magistrate to read. Following this, Tayla gave persuasive submissions to the Magistrate on behalf of her client. This was after she had successfully negotiated with the prosecution a more favourable police set of facts.
In the result, Tayla managed to convince the Magistrate to dismiss the charges entirely without a criminal record even after our client had pleaded guilty to both common assault charges under section 10 dismissals.