Assault armed with intent to commit serious indictable offence, affray & intimidation: Police v SKB

Assault – section 61 Crimes Act 1900 – armed with intent to commit serious indictable offence –  section 114 Crimes Act 1900 – affray – section 93C Crimes Act 1900 – intimidation – section 13 Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 – pleas of not guilty – acquitted of all charges

Facts:

SKB was charged with assault, intimidate and cause fear to a next door neighbour. Police alleged, based on the complainant’s account, he threatened to kill the neighbour and pulled a knife and made menacing words including intending to stab and kill the neighbour with the knife. During the course of the altercation, the neighbour used his iPhone to record some of the conversations between the accused SKB and himself.

SKB argued that the neighbour had provoked the incident and had been the threatening party during the course of the case. It emerged prior to the hearing of the matter that the complainant was a serving police officer, as was his principal witness.

Outcome:

After a hearing spanning 3 days in the Local Court, SKB was found not guilty of all charges. The court could not satisfy itself beyond reasonable doubt as to veracity and credibility of the witnesses, including the complainant. This was as a result of large number of inconsistencies between the accounts given by the witnesses during cross-examination.  Also, there were inconsistencies between the evidence presented in Court and the recordings made by the witnesses themselves.

Accordingly, these significant inconsistencies led the Court to have some reasonable level of doubt as to the credibility and reliability of the witness and alleged victim’s account. Our client was therefore entitled to the benefit of that doubt and was acquitted of all charges.

Testimonial:

“Peter, you were excellent. Your questioning of [the prosecution eye witnesses] exposed them as liars. We never doubted you would win this case for us.”

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