Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm

If you agree that you have committed the offence and the police are able to prove all the elements of the offence, it is best to plead guilty at an early opportunity to receive the maximum discount. Currently the maximum discount available for an early plea of guilty is 25% of the sentence.

Furthermore, the early guilty plea shows the Court that you have remorse and contrition for your actions.

Our Lawyers at National Criminal Lawyers work closely with you to ensure that we obtain all necessary paper work at increasing the chances of obtaining a non-conviction or section 10.

Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm can be punished with a prison sentence of up to 2 years (If heard in the Local Court) or up to 7 years (If heard in the District Court).

Please note that the penalties mentioned are reserved for the worse case offending and are unlikely to be the penalty you receive.

If you decide to plead not guilty you will need to prepare to go to a Defended Hearing.

A defended hearing is where all the witnesses of that case are called to give evidence. The witnesses are both examined by the prosecution and tested by your defence lawyers.

National Criminal Lawyers are experts at these hearings and can advise you on what the police must prove beyond reasonable doubt.

Some of the possible defences available for those charged with affray can include:

• If you were compelled to act in a certain way due to the circumstances, or the threats of another you may be able to argue “Duress”;
• If your actions were necessary to prevent a greater harm from occurring, you may have the defence of “Necessity”;
• If you were defending yourself or another OR yours or another’s property you may have a Defence of “Self-Defence” even in situations where “Pre-Emptive Force” is used. Moreover, at times there be a circumstances where you may argue that there was “No duty or need to retreat”.

The Courts are not bound by statistics however there must be reasonable consistency in sentences. A Magistrate or Judge should have regard to what has been done in other cases. In Green [2011] HCA 45, the plurity judgement of French CJ, Kiefel and Creennan JJ stated:

“Equal Justice” embodies the norm expressed in the terms “equality before the law”. It is an aspect of the rule of law.

For Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm offenders 20% received full time imprisonment whereas 43% received a good behaviour bond.

In NSW, a court can impose any of the following penalties for an Assault charge.

• Prison sentence;
• Home Detention;
• Intensive correction order (previously periodic detention);
• Suspended sentence;
• Community service order (CSO);
• Good behaviour bond;
• Fine; and/or
• Section 10

However, from the 24 September 2018 new penalty’s will be replacing the above. They are as follows:

• Full time Imprisonment;
• New ICO (ICO) with a home detention condition available;
• New Community Correction Order (CCO);
• Fine; or
• New Conditional release Order (CRO)

A physical mele occurred between our client and the alleged victim. Our client was charged with stalk/intimidate, common assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Statements were given to the police by the victim and his ex-partner which alleged that our client had assaulted the alleged victim causing minor injuries. After pleading not guilty to the charges, we represented our client in his hearing. We successfully cross-examined the alleged victim and their ex-partner which resulted in an undermining of their creditability resulting in the finding of a not guilty verdict.