The Court: Melbourne Magistrates Court
The Lawyer: Jaime Du Cane
The Charges:
The Allegations:
The client had been married to his wife for 40 years. The client’s daughter had mental health issues, and to a lesser extent, so did his wife.
The 40-year-old daughter, who was living at the family home, had started to hear voices and talk to herself. The client intervened, being concerned for his daughter, and tried to make her take her medications, and when she would not, he got in touch with his daughter’s doctor.
The daughter claimed that the client was aggressive and threatening and was keeping her under surveillance. The wife then also made claims about being raped 20 years ago and living a life of tyranny at the hands of her husband. Both the wife and the daughter made separate applications for a Family Violence Intervention Order against our client. They obtained interim orders at the Magistrates Court precluding the client from entering his home.
At Court:
Our client engaged our office and provided instructions that the allegations made by both his wife and daughter were entirely fabricated, and he therefore wanted to contest both intervention orders.
Following several preliminary hearings, the matter was booked in for a contested hearing. Before the contested hearing court date, the wife and the daughter had been sending our client threatening letters during the period that the interim order was in place.
When the contested hearing came around, the daughter and wife were cross-examined in the witness box about the letters, and they both attempted to deny its existence. A number of other matters were put to the witnesses that impugned their credibility, and it didn’t take long for the Magistrate to form the view that their applications had no basis.
The Outcome:
After hearing the evidence from both witnesses, the Magistrate formed the view that both the wife and daughter did not require protection from our client and therefore, struck out the intervention order applications. The client was able to return to his home that day. The injustice in this case is that the client had to leave his own home for several months while waiting for the matter to be listed for a contested hearing.
It was fairly clear in this instance that both his wife and daughter had used the courts to obtain interim orders by convincing a Magistrate in the first instance that they were in immediate fear, and it wasn’t until months later that his evidence could be tested in court at the intervention order hearing.
