Behave in Offensive Manner in Public Place Offence Withdrawn After Successful Representations

FB was charged with ‘Behave in offensive manner in/near/within hearing from a public place/school’, contrary to section 4(1) Summary Offences Act 1988. The allegation against FB relates to the conduct when he recorded a video of two females at a train station. Independent witnesses saw this conduct and alleged that FB’s behaviour was offensive.

FB pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the offence and had the matter set down for Hearing.

Pending the Hearing date, James Castillo prepared Representations to withdraw the charge, noting the context of the incident and that nothing captured could constitute offensive in a legal context.  

Eventually, Police accepted the Representations to withdraw the charge.

Charged, Negotiated and Withdrawn

MA was charged with two offences namely, ‘Armed with intent’ contrary to section 114(1) Crimes Act 1900 and ‘Affray’ contrary to section 93C Crimes Act 1900.

MA pleaded not guilty to both charges. Chris Cole reviewed the Brief of Evidence in its entirety including reviewing CCTV footages and perusing statements made by independent witnesses. After careful analysis, it became evident that self-defence is a strong argument for MA.

Chris Cole prepared representations to the police to withdraw the mentioned charges on the basis of self-defence. Initially, the Commander refused to accept the representations and the matter was set for hearing. At the end, the charges were withdrawn, and the matter was dismissed.

This is a successful negotiation story.