Not guilty verdicts awarded for assault and breach of ADVO charges

Our client a 32 year old male was charged with the following against his partner:  

1. Common assault in relation to domestic violence; and

2. Contravening an Apprehended Domestic Violence Order.

Our client was in a 15 year relationship. During the course of this relationship, our client and the complainant had several incidents in the past, whereby police intervened and placed Apprehended Domestic Violence Orders (ADVO's) on both parties. Both were required to comply with the orders throughout their relationship.

On one occasion, an argument arose after our client was unhappy with how the complainant was disciplining their son. During this argument, our client threw out some of the complainant's property.

The complainant the called the police and alleged that our client destroyed her property and assaulted her. As a result, our client was charged with assault and contravening the ADVO that was in place.

Our client maintained his position that he did not assault the complainant at any time and it was only a verbal argument.

During cross-examination, Mr Faraj took the complainant through the events in detail and given her allegations did not make sense based on the evidence before the court, it was then put to her that she was "over-exaggerating" and added details when speaking to the police that were not true, given the emotional state she was in at the time she made the allegations.

Based on the inconsistencies between her version of events and the evidence before the court, the complainant had no choice but to agree with the propositions put to her by Mr Faraj that she over-exaggerated at the time and she was not assaulted.

Accordingly, the court returned verdicts of not guilty and dismissed the charges against our client.

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