I’VE BEEN CHARGED WITH A DOMESTIC VIOLENCE OFFENCE – WILL I BE CONVICTED IF I PLEAD GUILTY?

2020 was a difficult year. The stressors of COVID, job loss and isolation added fuel to many already tense family dynamics. Between July 2019 and June 2020, the Local Court in NSW finalised 47,689 domestic violence matters (BOCSAR NSW Criminal Courts Statistics). Many of our clients are people who have never been charged with a criminal offence before but find themselves charged with domestic violence offences following a break down in their relationship or rising tensions within their household. Being charged with an offence and having to appear at court for the first time is a daunting experience, coupled with the concern of a conviction which can have significant ramifications.

Most allegations of domestic violence are dealt with in the Local Court and involve assaults, stalk/intimidate charges, using a mobile phone to harass or offend and destroying or damaging property. The District and Supreme Court deal with more serious allegations of domestic violence involving serious assaults, kidnapping, sexual assault, murder or attempted murder.

In almost all domestic violence cases an AVO will also be in place once charges are laid. The AVO travels along with the charges and is automatically finalised if a plea of guilty is entered or there is a finding of guilt for a serious domestic violence offence.

In NSW, a domestic relationship is quite broad and includes a spouse or partner (including an ex) boy/girlfriend (including an ex), parent/guardian (including step/foster parents), children (including step/foster children), siblings, other family members, someone who is living or has lived in the same household as another person, someone who is dependent on the paid or unpaid care of the other person, or even people involved in a “love triangle” (eg. a woman’s ex-partner and current partner would be considered to have a domestic relationship with each other even if they had never met).

NSW Parliament has made it quite clear that if a court finds a person guilty of a domestic violence offence (this includes if a person pleads guilty to a domestic violence offence) the court must impose a gaol sentence or a supervised order, unless the court is satisfied that a different sentence is appropriate in the circumstances. A supervised order is a type of good behaviour bond that requires you to be of good behaviour in the community and to be supervised by Community Corrections. This is Parliament’s way of asking the courts to send a message to the community that domestic violence will not be tolerated. As such, it is increasingly difficult to persuade the court to not record a conviction even in circumstances where a person has never been charged with an offence before and if they are someone of otherwise good character.

While no domestic violence offence can be considered trivial, there are often extenuating circumstances which are integral to the matrix of the offending. It is important that the court is made aware of these circumstances. Our lawyers can work with you to advise you on whether you can defend domestic violence allegations and, if not, to ensure that we put your best case forward when the court deals with your matter.