The Court: County Court of Victoria
The Lawyer: Mike Brown
The Charges:
The Allegations:
The client was a massage therapist. The complainant had attended the client’s spa for a massage. The prosecution allege that during the massage, the client had inserted his finger into the vagina of the complainant three times whilst performing a massage and massaged the complainant’s breasts.
At Court:
Following being charged with the offences, the client engaged our office, which assisted our solicitor in preparing the case properly. Given the serious nature of the charges, the matter was dealt with in the indictable stream.
During the committal hearing (a hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence for the matter to go to trial), the complainant made certain concessions when giving evidence, namely that she had previously been the victim of sexual abuse and that she had been seeing a psychiatrist.
The complainant also conceded that the breast massage was potentially consensual and that she was not sure if the penetration occurred more than once. This led to the sexual assault charge regarding the initially alleged breast massage being struck out at the committal hearing, which meant that the jury did not ever hear about the breast massage.
The other concessions were also beneficial to the defence case. Considering that our client had no prior history and had initially denied all allegations, the client was in a strong position for trial.
At trial, the complainant was cross-examined on the above matters. After the trial ended and during jury deliberations, the jury took some time to deliberate and ultimately could not reach a unanimous decision that the accused was guilty. There was a hung jury (when a jury is unable to reach a unanimous or majority verdict on whether the accused is guilty or not guilty), rather than a full acquittal. The Judge, therefore, adjourned the matter to allow time for the Crown to decide whether they would try to prosecute the client again.
The Outcome:
In the interim period, our solicitor made a written submission to the prosecution inviting them to provide our office with a Notice of Discontinuance. The Crown accepted the submissions, and the prosecution was discontinued.
Given the potential consequences of prison if the client was found guilty of the offences, the client was extremely relieved at the outcome.
