Sexual Assault Lawyers Sydney

Recent Sexual Assault Cases

• Sexual Assault Charges Dropped

This week Astor Legal were successful in having sexual assault charges dropped after negotiations with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Our client is a 21-year-old apprentice plumber who lived at home with his parents.

He had gone to the same high school as a female who he met on a night out. The pair added each other on social media applications (Instagram and snapchat) and began exchanging messages.

Ultimately they agreed to meet at the complainant’s friend’s house. Throughout the night our client consumed a significant amount of alcohol. The complainant also consumed a number of alcoholic beverages.

When our client arrived he was met by the complainant and her friend. He went to a bedroom with the alleged victim and after a brief discussion they engaged in sexual intercourse.

Afterwards, the complainant messaged her friend advising her that our client was still intoxicated and needed assistance leaving the room. It was apparent that she found the situation amusing as she also messaged, “lol”.

Our client then told her that he did not wish to see her again as he had a girlfriend.

Once he left, the complainant spoke to her friend and also phoned some family members. The next day she attended a police station claiming she had been sexually assaulted.

Police had her phone our client while they recorded the conversation, seeking to have him made admissions. Luckily, he denied the offence when she phoned him.

Our client was charged with sexual assault by police pursuant to section 61I of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW). This is also known as sexual intercourse without consent.

He and his parents came to us distraught. After seeing our recent cases, they asked us how to get sexual assault charges dropped.

We immediately got to work and obtained messages between our client and the complainant which made it clear that she had in fact instigated the encounter.

We then wrote detailed ‘representations’ to the DPP highlighting significant inconsistencies in the complainant’s statement. Police had also photographed the room where the incident took place. Upon a close examination of the room, it became apparent that the incident could not have taken place as she suggested.

Representations are a formal legal document requesting the withdrawal of charges. It is also known as a ‘no bill application’.

Following extensive negotiations with the DPP, the charge was ultimately withdrawn while the case was still in the Local Court.

This saved our client significant time, expense and a lengthy District Court jury trial. He and his family were overjoyed with the result.
• Another Sexual Assault Charge Dismissed

Our client is a German national who was charged with sexual intercourse without consent after a Tinder date. Prior to police arresting him, our client flew to another jurisdiction to meet his sister. Police were unable to locate him and released a statement to the media asking for public assistance in locating him. This was unsuccessful which led to them applying for and being granted an extradition warrant. You can read about how we made a successful bail application for him here.

After having our client released on bail, we commenced preparing our defence. This involved preparing our cross-examination of the complainant. We were able to identify inconsistencies between the complainant’s police statement and what she told her friends about what occurred.

At the hearing, we cross-examined the complainant on those inconsistencies. We were also able to highlight inconsistencies between her evidence in court and her police statement. Our sexual assault lawyers made submissions focussed on this. We argued that the complainant could be accepted as a credible or reliable witness.

Ultimately, the court agreed with our submissions and found our client not guilty and dismissed the charge.
• Sexual Assault Charges Dropped Within Weeks

Astor Legal successfully had another client’s sexual assault charges withdrawn at an early stage following negotiations with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Our client is a 38-year-old engineer who was in the midst of a messy divorce and separation from his wife. There had been ongoing issues for some time.

Ostensibly to gain the upper hand in family law proceedings, his wife fabricated a number of sexual assault allegations against him. Police arrested him and bail refused him. They also applied for an AVO which prevented him from contacting his wife or his children.

Our client initially retained another law firm and was refused bail in the Local Court. After he retained us we made a successful Supreme Court bail application. This required offering an onerous ankle monitoring condition, daily reporting, the surrender of a passport and a surety to surrender $50,000 to the court.

Following his release, we began preparing representations to the DPP for the withdrawal of the case.

Central to this was highlighting that our client’s wife had obtained legal advice from a family lawyer shortly before making the complaint to police. We were also able to subpoena text messages and phone records. These painted a story that was in stark contrast to the wife’s version. Importantly, there was no complaint of sexual assault in the text messages.

Within weeks we were able to file the representations with the DPP while the case was still in at Campbelltown Local Court, using our proven formula for how to get sexual assault charges dropped.

Ultimately, on the next court date the DPP chose to withdraw all charges against our client. Shortly afterwards we were also able to get the AVO dropped.

As a result of our efforts, our client is now free to spend time with his children without any restrictions.
• Bail Granted for Sexual Assault Charges Despite Extradition  

Recently Astor Legal appeared at Downing Centre Local Court in relation to a bail application.

Our client was charged with sexual intercourse without consent after a tinder date. Prior to police arresting him, our client flew to another jurisdiction to meet his sister.

Police were unable to locate him and released a statement to the media asking for public assistance in locating him. This was unsuccessful which led to them applying for and being granted an extradition warrant. He was arrested and brought to Sydney.

In preparation for the release application, we obtained documentation from our client’s sister who confirmed that he had pre-booked his flight. Further, upon finding out that police were searching for him, our client voluntarily contacted police.

We also arranged for our client to have a residential address in Sydney to reside at and abide by a curfew. He also surrendered his passport to police.

We appeared at Downing Centre Local Court and our lawyer for the bail application applied for his release.

We were successfully able to show cause why our client should be released, and proposed bail conditions that mitigated any unacceptable concerns.

In the result our client was granted bail.

A few days later we were able to vary our client’s bail to allow him to return to live with his sister while his case is proceeding through the court.
• Bail granted and then found not guilty to charges of Sexual Assault and Aggravated Indecent Assault

Our client was a 24-year-old man from Laos. He was studying Law and Economics at the University of New South Wales.

On one particular night he attended the house of one of his friends. Also present were his friend’s girlfriend and a roommate.

A significant amount of alcohol was consumed by all parties. Eventually, the girlfriend walked to ensuite and collapsed at the toilet. The roommate vomited and retired to his bedroom.

Finally, the friend vomited and was helped to his bed by our client. Our client then went to sleep on the lounge room couch.

The next morning, the girlfriend alleged that our client had sexually assaulted her during the night.

Our client strongly denied this and said that he was sleeping on the couch the entire night.

A complaint was made to Police who arrested our client and refused him bail.

We immediately began preparing a bail application.

We argued that our client was a person of good character, that he denied the allegations and that there were severe reliability issues given the state of intoxication of the complainant.

The Magistrate granted our client bail on strict conditions, including a condition that he surrender his passport and not approach any international point of departure.

We then began preparing for Trial.

There were a number of strong pieces of evidence that the prosecution had.

Firstly, there was a DNA swab from the complainant’s perianal region which matched our client’s DNA profile.

Secondly, a quilt cover had been found next to where the complainant alleged the sexual assault took place. That quilt cover had semen stains which matched our client’s DNA profile.

In attacking these two pieces of evidence, we engaged a forensic scientist to assess the reliability of the DNA match. We were able to cast significant doubt on the significance of the DNA evidence.

We also engaged a toxicology expert to opine on how the complainant’s level of intoxication affected her memory.

The case initially proceeded to Trial at Downing Centre District Court.

We cross-examined of the complainant and her boyfriend and were able to extract a string of inconsistencies in their evidence.

We also led evidence from our DNA expert as to the reliability of the DNA evidence. We also led evidence as to the possibility of secondary DNA transfer (ie. how our client’s DNA could be found on the complainant’s perianal region without our client touching her perianal region).

The jury deliberated for close to a week but were unable to agree on a verdict. As a result, the judge declared a ‘hung jury’.

The case was listed for a re-trial 6 months later.

In the re-trial, the prosecution called the roommate. We cross-examined him at length and further inconsistencies were shown between his version of events and what the other witnesses had said.

Ultimately, the jury took less than half a day to find our client not guilty of all charges.