Bail Granted & then Not Guilty to Intentionally Choke, Assault & Intimidation Charges

Recently Astor Legal appeared at Downing Centre Local Court in relation to a client charged with a number of domestic violence charges including Intentionally Choke, Common Assault, Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm and Stalk/Intimidate.

Police alleged that our client had become engaged in a heated argument with his wife in the kitchen. This argument then moved to the bedroom of their 8-year-old daughter. It was alleged that while their daughter was present, our client had slapped his wife in the face before throwing a fan at her.

The prosecution claimed that our client had then choked his wife for a number of seconds, leaving her unable to breathe. It was alleged that his wife then ran out of the apartment and to the front of the building where she called Police and waited for them to arrive.

Our client contacted us after his arrest by Police. He was bail refused and brought before Waverley Local Court for a bail application. We appeared for him and despite strenuous objections by the prosecutor, we were able to have our client released on bail.

We then got to work preparing his defence.

We obtained CCTV footage from the apartment complex which showed that the complainant had not ran from the apartment, but rather walked at a leisurely pace. We were also able to obtain the 000 recording of her phone call to Police where she gave a version that was significantly different to what she told the Police officers who arrived on the scene.

At the hearing we were able to cross-examine her at length about these inconsistencies. Further inconsistencies in her version were revealed during our cross-examination.

Ultimately, the Magistrate could not be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt on each of the allegations and our client was found ‘not guilty’.