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.
We were of the view that our client had a viable defence to the remaining two charges and had the matter listed for 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 Whilst on bail awaiting trial, we assisted our client with the FVRO matter, and the FVRO was ultimately withdrawn.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 the prosecution was forced to discontinue the two charges. As for the one charge he had entered a plea of guilty to, we obtained a suspended fine and a spent conviction order.
