Our client is a 37-year old man from Macquarie Fields in Sydney.
He was arrested and charged as being a member of a quartet who assaulted and wounded a man with intent to do so, which is an offence under section 33 of the Crimes Act 1900 carrying a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.
The incident occurred in our client’s home, where the complainant suffered stab wounds and was seen staggering from the residence and down the road, before he collapsed on a neighbour’s front veranda.
When police arrived at the scene, there were several people in the vicinity.
The bleeding was taken to hospital and stabilised. A couple of days later, the complainant was interviewed by police in the hospital and provided an unsworn account in which he alleged that our client was involved.
The case ultimately proceeded to a District Court jury trial. Before the trial commenced, our defence team made an application for the information obtained at hospital to be excluded on the basis that the probative value of the evidence was outweighed by its prejudicial effect, given that it was unsworn and also the state the complainant was in when he made the statement.
The judge accepted our submissions and excluded the evidence, resulting in a significant weakening of the prosecution case.
The prosecution then withdrew the case, resulting in our client remaining a free man.