QLD First Offence Assault Charge - What to Do?

[Mexity]

Hi,

My partner has put an assault charge against me. This is my first offence, first charge, first ever time appearing at court.

Backstory -

We have been split for 6 years & it has been a constant on/off battle. The events leading up to this "assault" happened when my current partner & I went pig hunting and we took my son.

My partner bought my son a knife to make him feel included. We set rules with this knife. For starters, it has been made blunt. My son is never allowed to have the knife on his own, he doesn't ever use the knife, he sometimes may have the knife but is under constant supervision.

Now my son told his dad about this knife & exaggerated as kids do that. He uses it all the time. His dad refused to listen to me about our rules with the knife and said that I am a bad mother, my partner a bad father figure.

All over text, I had enough of being out downed, so I went to my ex's house to discuss with him instead of over text. He kept talking over me and laughing at me and in the heat of the moment, I swung my fist at him. He blocked me and I then walked away to my car and left.

He is now charging me for assault. I have read and been told I may be able to get off using provocation.

Any opinions?

Thanks

 

[AllForHer]

He isn't charging you with anything.

The police are.

The defence of provocation falls under s 269 of the Criminal Code:

(1) A person is not criminally responsible for an assault committed upon a person who gives the person provocation for the assault, if the person is in fact deprived by the provocation of the power of self-control, and acts upon it on the sudden and before there is time for the person’s passion to cool, and if the force used is not disproportionate to the provocation and is not intended, and is not such as is likely, to cause death or grievous bodily harm.

(2) Whether any particular act or insult is such as to be likely to deprive an ordinary person of the power of self-control and to induce the ordinary person to assault the person by whom the act or insult is done or offered, and whether, in any particular case, the person provoked was actually deprived by the provocation of the power of self-control, and whether any force used is or is not disproportionate to the provocation, are questions of fact.​

I don't know how you'll go with the provocation defence here. All dad was doing was texting you (sure, those messages may have been unkind, but welcome to parenting after separation). You took it a step further and went to his house, presumably without his consent, and when you arrived, you responded to him talking over you and laughing at you with physical assault. Does that sound proportionate to you? Would you think it fair for him to hit you in the face if you were laughing at him and talking over him?

Best get yourself some legal advice.

 

[Mexity]

Thank you.

I am getting legal advice, just awaiting my qp9 to be ready.

 

[Clancy]

As I was reading the story, at first I was thinking the OP was the Dad, and then the knife is mentioned, plus an assault, and I am thinking, "Oh, this guy is going to be in for it now". Then I came to the part where, oh, it's the mother. OK, maybe not then.

Domestic violence against women is a hot political topic at the moment, adds on TV and everything, but not a peep about domestic violence towards men, but still, you might end up with a judge who wants to be seen to be upholding equality of the sexes, so that is how you could find yourself in big trouble.

 

[James Dylan]

Plead guilty? - It’s a minor offence. If you have no previous criminal convictions, you’ll probably get a fine and not have this recorded as a conviction against you.

Plead not guilty? - If there were no other witnesses, and he didn’t have any injuries, then it’s your word vs his. In order for the police to charge you, they need to prove, beyond any reasonable shred of doubt, that you did hit your ex. So if you say you didn’t do it, and he says you did, that’s not enough proof.