Published November 2025
FVRO breach charges WA – five charges discontinued
Perrella Legal represented a client initially held on remand in Hakea Prison facing six criminal charges involving aggravated assault and alleged breaches of family violence restraining orders (FVROs).
Through early analysis of the prosecution case, negotiations and trial preparation, we secured the discontinuance of five charges, obtained our client’s release on bail and assisted in securing the withdrawal of an FVRO. The remaining charge was resolved with a suspended fine and a spent conviction order.
Defending FVRO breach charges in WA
Our client was on remand in Hakea Prison, with six pending criminal charges involving aggravated assaults and breaches of FVROs, and a second FVRO against him. We were initially engaged for a bail application, which unfortunately, did not succeed. We turned our attention to resolving the matter so our client did not have to spend more time in custody than the seriousness of the charges warranted.
Within days of being engaged, we secured prosecution agreement to discontinue two of the charges we immediately identified as being duplicitous. We determined that two minor breach FVRO charges for which he had no arguable defence, should be condensed into one charge and the prosecution also agreed with our assessment. With this change in circumstances, we secured our client’s release on bail.
Having examined the prosecution evidence, we identified viable defences to the two remaining contested charges and arranged for the matters to proceed to trial. Whilst on bail awaiting trial, we assisted our client with the FVRO matter, and the FVRO was ultimately withdrawn. On the day of trial, the prosecution witnesses did not attend to give evidence, and When the prosecution witnesses did not attend to give evidence on the trial date, the prosecution discontinued both charges. As for the one charge he had entered a plea of guilty to, we obtained a suspended fine and a spent conviction order.