Family Violence – Assault Charges

This is a case study on family violence assault charges at the Broadmeadows Children’s Court, where all assault charges were withdrawn after inconsistencies in the prosecution case were exposed.

What is alleged to have occured?

Our client was charged with multiple offences following allegations of criminal behaviour that occurred in the context of family violence. The prosecution alleged that our client broke a glass window, assaulted his former-partner, and menaced his former-partner’s sister with a rounded stick. The client conceded that he broke the window but adamantly denied that he assaulted anyone.

What happened at court?

The case was heard at the Broadmeadows Children’s Court. We acted on the client’s behalf on the charges of:

• Criminal Damage
• Commit Indictable Offence Whilst on Bail
• Unlawful Assault

We had multiple discussions with the prosecutors during which he highlighted the deficiencies in their case; in particular, the inconsistent statements between the alleged victims and witnesses. At first, they refused to withdraw the charges and the matter was listed for a contested hearing. However before the matter was set down for a contest, we insisted that the prosecution get a further statement from the alleged victims confirming whether or not they wanted to proceed with the Unlawful Assault charges, as it became clear to him that they didn’t.

The prosecution obtained a further statement from the alleged victims where they gave a different account of the client’s conduct than the account they gave in their original statement.

What was the result?

Ultimately, all the assault charges were withdrawn. This was a pleasing outcome for a case of family violence that involves assault charges, due to our diligence and persistence as the true events became clear.