Man receives no conviction and Conditional Release Order for Assault

Lawyer-in-charge: Lara Menon

Our client was a 30 year old man charged with assault of his wife after a domestic incident. The parties marriage was under incredible pressure and had started to show signs of strain. Following a verbal argument, the victim was refusing to leave the marital bed after several requests from our client. As a result, our client pushed on her leg in an attempt to get her to leave the bed. The victim claims she was pushed out of bed. Following the incident the victim slept at the other end of the house for the remainder of the night. The following morning, the family had breakfast together, watched TV and played with the children like normal. The victim left the house to go to a family lunch, however instead went to the police station to make a report.

Our client was ultimately arrested by Police, and he agreed to participate in an electronically recorded interview where he made admissions to pushing the victim. He was then charged with Assault. Following consultation with Lara, the client sought professional assistance from various counsellors, including marriage counselling, anger management and relationships counselling.

Lara made submissions to the Court on sentencing and provided evidence of the positive steps the client had made to correct his behaviour. The Court sentenced our client to a Conditional Release Order with no conviction recorded to be on good behaviour. Our client will still be eligible to apply for a position with the Australian Defence Force as he had planned as no conviction was recorded.