The Magistrate in Downing Centre Local Court granted a ‘Section 10’ (no conviction) to our 24 year-old female client after she assaulted her female flatmate who had allegedly been flirtatious towards her boyfriend.
The incident occurred after our client returned home from a night out and entered her flatmate’s bedroom.
An argument occurred and our client then jumped onto her flatmate’s bed.
According to the original police papers, our client then:
‘began punching her with a clenched fist approximately 10 times to the head area resulting in bruising and swelling to the left eye and cheek area’ and ‘red marks and bruising to the upper-left pectoral region’.
Our client also allegedly threw her flatmate’s belongings out and obtained a knife.
She was restrained by her boyfriend.
Our client was initially charged with Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm.
However, our defence team managed to convince police to delete all of the above ‘facts’ from the police papers and to replace them simply with the words ‘began slapping her head area’.
The charge of Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm was then withdrawn and replaced with the less-serious charge of ‘Common Assault‘.
Our client then pleaded guilty to Common Assault and the Magistrate was persuaded not to record a criminal conviction against her.