Our client caught up with a former FIFO work colleague for drinks at his mate’s house. Our client had not been to the house before and met, for the first time, his mate’s partner and two teenage children. Our client and his mate both drank well into the evening before our client’s mate retired to bed leaving our client to sleep alone on the upstairs couch. It was a very cold night and at some point, in the early hours, our client, in his heavily intoxicated state, got up and went in search of a blanket in unfamiliar surroundings. Our client woke up the next morning on the downstairs couch with a blanket that appeared to have come from his mate’s 16-year-old daughter’s bedroom. Our client had no memory of how he came to be downstairs or where the blanket came from. Later that day our client left the house, and his mate’s partner was making derogatory remarks about our client. Their daughter overheard the comments and mentioned that she had to kick our client out of her bedroom in the night. Our client’s mate, who was prone to reacting before thinking, immediately assumed the worst and after interrogating his daughter she said our client had touched her leg as she was in bed, and she told him to leave, and he left. Instead of reporting the matter to the police our client’s now former mate sought vigilante justice and went armed and in company looking for our client. After pursuing our client over several days and threatening to kill him in several phone calls, the former mate, unsatisfied that our client had not been physically assaulted, took his daughter to the police station where she felt she had no option but to report what happened. Our client was charged with indecent assault. We advised our client to take the matter to trial.
After a two-day trial (part heard over a 6-month period) in the Magistrates Court the magistrate, despite being satisfied that our client had touched the teenager on her leg without consent, was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the touching was in any was sexual or otherwise indecent. Our client had endured a two-year court process and was in fear for his life because his former mate did not try to find out the truth without resorting to threats of violence. Our client’s charge was dismissed, and he was awarded costs payable by the prosecution.