Our client was minding his own business waiting outside a Chinese restaurant in Northbridge, when the complainant decided to agitate him, and having achieved that aim, falsely asserted to police that he was the victim in the trivial incident which followed. Fortunately, expert analysis of the restaurant CCTV showed not only that the complainant’s allegation was exaggerated but that it was without substance.
The complainant alleged our client invaded his personal space whilst he was lining up to enter the restaurant. The two were known to one another because of a past business transaction in which our client had secured a positive outcome over the complainant. A verbal argument ensued over the perceived personal space transgression but escalated when the complainant told our client to “go back to fucking India”.
Having instigated a scene over personal space and directing a racial slur towards our client, the complainant decided it was necessary to call the police and waste their time with this trivial matter and put his mobile phone up to our client’s face to record him (while he was speaking to the police operator). Our client, provoked by this invasion of privacy, instinctively reacted by pushing the mobile phone out of his face and onto the ground. Despite making no physical contact with the complainant, our client was later charged with aggravated common assault because a lady in the queue nearby was holding a baby. The complainant also alleged he had been struck to the face by our client.
Our first endeavour to downgrade the charge with the prosecution failed, with the complainant insisting (without proof) that he had suffered bruising as a result of being struck to the face, and police maintaining that the baby saw the incident unfold. We then secured a comprehensive forensic expert report, which provided a detailed second by second analysis of the CCTV, which not only proved beyond reasonable doubt that our client did not make any contact with the complainant’s face, but that the baby was not in view when our client reached out to the mobile phone that was placed in his personal space. Our second submission to the prosecution to discontinue the charge altogether was accepted, and on the day of the intended trial, our client was granted a full costs award including the expense incurred in securing a forensic expert report.
