Our client is a 20 year old teaching student who was charged with ‘making a false representation resulting in a police investigation’. She made a complaint of sexual assault against her short term partner, who was many years her senior.
After her initial complaint to police, she indicated that she did not want to attend court because she did not want to face the trauma of reliving the incident.
When she refused to give a further statement clarifying various matters, police formed the view that she was lying and charged her with making a false complaint.
The case ultimately proceeded to a defended hearing in Downing Centre Local Court, where our lawyers were able to establish that police had failed to adequately investigate her initial complaint – failing to follow up leads or to gather any forensic or other evidence from the incident scene. They further failed to make sufficient inquiries into her alleged false complaint.
The Magistrate remarked that there was insufficient evidence against our client and found her not guilty.
We then made an application for costs against police. His Honour found that the investigation was conducted in an unreasonable and improper manner, awarding full legal costs in our client’s favour.