Affray

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.

Affray can be punished with a prison sentence of up to 2 years (if heard in the Local Court) or up to 10 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 have defended thousands of people charged with affray and are experts at these hearings.

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 affray offenders 13% of offenders received a full-time prison sentence whereas 49% received a 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 and
    • 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 and or
    • New Conditional release Order (CRO)

Our client, a former boxer, was acquitted of Affray having punched and kicked the victim in the early hours of the morning in Kings Cross.

CCTV evidence showed numerous individuals involved in an attack on the victim.

Our client was clearly seen to assault the victim, knocking him out in the process.

In terms of the case Our Specialist Defence Criminal Lawyers was able to raise self-defence. He did this by successfully leading evidence from three witnesses (as well as cross examining the alleged victim and police officers at the scene).

Through proper examination of the testimonies of these eye witnesses, it was discovered that the CCTV footage did not tell the whole story. In particular the part missing was how the altercation began and the conduct of the alleged victim.

In arguing self-defence our Criminal Lawyer argued “no duty of retreat” and even that “pre-emptive use of force can amount to self-defence”. Our client was acquitted of the charge in the Local Court of NSW.

In particular it was found that the victim was extremely drunk and abusive to several women in the vicinity and although not shown on CCTV, the witnesses all pointed to the victim as being the one who started the fight, and whilst during the fight the one who made continual attempts and advances to keep the fight going oftentimes following and grabbing at our client and his body and legs.

The Court held that our client did use proportional self-defence and as such he was acquitted of the Affray charge.

Our client who was aspiring to be a dentist was relieved as his career opportunities may have been impinged on if he was guilty and convicted of an offence of affray. Luckily for our client he can now enjoy his career aspirations as both as professional boxer and soon to be, dentist.