Aggravated acts of indecency

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.

For Aggravated Acts of Indecency there are a variety of punishments depending on the age of the victim and as to what kind of Aggravated Acts of Indecency has been perpetrated. Those penalties are as follows;

If the victim is under the age of 16 years the offender can be punished with a prison sentence of up to 5 years.

If the victim is the age of 16 years or above the offender can be punished with a prison sentence of up to 3 years.

If the victim is under the age of 10 years the offender can be punished with a prison sentence of up to 7 years.

If the victim is under the age of 16 years and who knows that the act of indecency is being filmed for the purposes of the production of child abuse material the offender can be punished with a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
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 Aggravated Acts of Indecency can include:

• You did not commit the act;
• The act was not indecent;
• The act was not done towards another person;
• The act was not committed in circumstances of aggravation.

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 Cultivate 35% of offenders received a fine whereas 31% received a section 9 Good behaviour bond.

In NSW, a court can impose any of the following penalties for a supply prohibited drug charge.

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

However, from 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
• New Conditional release Order (CRO)

Aggravated Indecent assault is assault in circumstances of indecency which is aggravated because it is done in the company of another person or persons, the victim is under the authority of the alleged offender, or the victim has a serious physical disability or cognitive impairment. Aggravated Indecent Assault is characterised as a sex crime and has significant overlap with offences referred to as sexual assault.

Our client was charged with aggravated act of indecency towards a child under the age of 16 in his nearby shopping centre. The accusations made against our client included touching the backside and legs of the child and masturbating whilst at the shopping centre. Our client was not charged until well after a year in which time he was unaware that he was under any sort of police investigation.

The allegations seemed to stack against our client after it was known that he was placed on a Community Corrections order for similar offending some time before. This fact meant that should our client be found guilty; he could well be looking at some sort of custodial sentence. In the Local Court, the maximum jurisdictional limit is 2 years imprisonment.

Our office was retained after our client read about our success in fighting similar charges. Our office agreed to act for our client and appeared at Parramatta Local Court. We were instructed to enter a plea of not guilty and to receive the brief of evidence. It was our instructions that the charges would be vehemently contested.

In preparation for this matter, our office received the brief of evidence and was able to carefully dissect and analyse it. Through our efforts, our office noticed that the entirety of the Prosecution case eventuated from a complaint made by the child’s mother, who did not directly witness the alleged incident. From this complaint, police were of the view that criminal charges should be laid given the serious nature of the allegations.

Ultimately, we were able to tailor appropriate questions in preparation for cross-examination of the so-called witness and the investigating police. Through our questioning, we were able to demonstrate to the magistrate that the allegations bore little to no weight as to the providence of the allegations. It was brought out that the child’s mother had noticed our client attend the shopping centre on other occasions and was convinced that he was the one to have touched her daughter.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the magistrate indicated that he was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that our client had committed the crimes alleged to have occurred. The magistrate found our client not guilty.

Given the seriousness of the charges, the legal costs involved and the sheer dereliction by investigating officers, our office also made an application for costs so that our client may have some relief for payment of his legal fees. After all, had the police conducted a more sophisticated investigation, it is likely these charges would never have come to light. This was a good result especially for a case involving sexual offences such as aggravated indecent assault.