A Guide To Common Assault
Common assault is a criminal offence that can lead to serious repercussions and penalties.
If you are facing charges for common assault, it’s important to understand what the crime entails.
The offence of common assault is used to prosecute someone who has intentionally or recklessly caused another person to feel afraid of imminent harm, or bodily contact that was offensive or provocative.
Most often, a common assault charge results from actual physical contact, such as a push, slap, punch or similar, but may also be brought if a person has threatened another individual with imminent bodily danger without carrying out the threat, or even having any intention to carry out the threat. It is the intention to cause the other person to fear the imminent threat that can make out the offence.
If you are facing an assault charge you should speak to an assault lawyer as soon as possible. Read on for information on your rights, your options, and the possible consequences of being convicted of this criminal offence.
What is a Common Assault?
Common assault is an offence under Section 61 of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW). Common assault is used to prosecute someone who has intentionally or recklessly caused another person to feel afraid of imminent harm or bodily contact that was offensive or provocative. The most common forms of assault that lead to charges include pushing, hitting, kicking, punching, scratching, or spitting at another person, as well as making the other person think (and fear) that you are about to do so.
Elements of Common Assault
In order to convict you of common assault, the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you intended to cause the alleged victim to fear immediate harm, or you recklessly caused the person to fear immediate harm. The prosecution also must prove that the alleged victim did, in fact, fear immediate harm.
Penalties
If you are convicted of common assault, the maximum penalty is 2 years’ imprisonment. If the court decides that your assault was not serious enough to warrant a jail sentence, the court may impose a community based order, often referred to as good behaviour bonds. There are two types – a Conditional Release Order and a Community Corrections Order. Factors such as any previous convictions or any aggravating features relating to how the offence was committed, may also be taken into consideration. Aggravating features can include the presence of another person, gratuitous cruelty, and the location where the offence occurred (for example, people are entitled to feel safe in their own homes, so an assault in the victim’s home would be an aggravating feature.
Defences
Self-defence is the most common type of defence to a common assault. To establish self-defence if you are charged with a common assault, you need to establish that:
- You believed your conduct was necessary in order to prevent the alleged victim from harming you (or someone else), and
- Your actions were a reasonable response in the circumstances as you perceived them.
Thus, your conduct cannot be unreasonable or excessive in the circumstances, or it will not be considered to be self defence.
Other defences include that your actions were accidental and not reckless. Duress and necessity are also possible defences that an assault lawyer may be able to advise you on.
If the victim is your child, and what may amount to an assault is committed for the purpose of reasonable correction (the old word was “discipline”), the defence of lawful correction could currently be available to you. This is, however, quite a limited defence, as society today demands that children are not subjected to physical correction in most circumstances. All of the restrictions on what you could be permitted to do are set out in section 60AA, Crimes Act.
In Summary:
Common assault is a crime that can lead to serious repercussions and penalties. In order to convict you of common assault, the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you intended to cause the alleged victim to fear immediate harm, or you recklessly caused the person to fear immediate harm. If you are facing a common assault charge you should speak to a common assault lawyer as soon as possible
Call Criminal Lawyers Sydney and Suburbs today – (02) 9533 2269
