No Conviction for Domestic Violence Charges on Appeal

Last week Astor Legal appeared at Sydney District Court on behalf of a client charged with a number of domestic violence charges.

Originally he had been charged with Intentionally Choke, Common Assault, Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm and Stalk/Intimidate. In total there were six charges.

We entered pleas of ‘not guilty’ to four of the six charges and pleaded guilty on disputed facts to the remaining two charges.

After extensive cross-examination of the complainant, our client was found ‘not guilty’ of the four domestic violence charges. You can read about that case by clicking here.

The remaining two charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault proceeded to Sydney District Court on a severity appeal.

We undertook a significant amount of preparation for the appeal.

This included arranging for our client to undergo extensive psychological counselling. We also obtained letters from his employer and work colleagues setting out that a conviction may result in a loss of job.

We appeared at Downing Centre Court for the appeal and made lengthy submissions in support of no conviction being recorded. Despite the prosecutor strongly opposing this, we were able to rebut their submissions.

Ultimately, the Judge was persuaded by our submissions and sentenced our client to a conditional release order without conviction for 12 months.  Our client was ecstatic with the result.