Slip, slop, drop

Our former client, a young man in his 20’s, called us after being charged with failing to comply with his reporting obligations, which came into effect after he was convicted of sexual offending against a child. A year into his reporting period, and after a week of working overtime with very little sleep, he forgot to attend a Friday appointment with the Sex Offender Management Squad (SOMS). On realising his slip-up, our client immediately call SOMS but their office was closed. Over the weekend he continued trying to contact SOMS via email and telephone to explain his oversight was not deliberate, to no avail. First thing on Monday morning he contacted SOMS, who were not dissuaded from proceeding to charge our client for non-compliance. Our client desperately wished to avoid another conviction against his name. We provided the prosecutor with a submission to discontinue the charge, who ultimately agreed there was no public interest in prosecuting our client and discontinued proceedings against him.