A man has failed in his attempt to appeal his conviction for choking his wife. Photo: Albert McKnight.
CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to family violence.
After a father slapped his five-year-old daughter during bathtime, he got into an argument with his wife in an incident that escalated into him choking her on a bed.
The details of his crimes were revealed in a published ACT Supreme Court decision when he failed to appeal one of his convictions earlier this month.
The man, who legally cannot be named but has a security clearance, took their daughter for a bath in November 2022 when the woman heard a hard slapping sound.
She went into the bathroom and the daughter told her the man had slapped her in the face. The woman noticed there was some redness on her child’s face.
When the woman yelled at the man to get out of the room, he told her, “She’s wiped a booger on me”.
The pair got into an argument that escalated into the man pushing the woman onto a bed, climbing on top of her and putting his hands around her throat, which stopped her from breathing for about five seconds.
“She felt that her face was hot at the time and she thought she was going to die,” Special Magistrate Sean Richter said.
“While the defendant was choking the complainant, she was kicking his lower body.
“The child was also in the room at this point, yelling at the defendant to stop, and she was pushing or striking him.”
When police arrived later that night, the man told them, “She liked grabbed me and starts punching me”.
Special Magistrate Richter found the man guilty of the assault of a child and a choking-related charge following an ACT Magistrates Court hearing last September.
However, he acquitted the man of two other assault charges over different allegations from the same evening.
The man appealed against the guilty finding for the choking charge, arguing in part that prosecutors did not negate the reasonable possibility that he had acted in self-defence.
He wanted the appeal court to find him not guilty of the charge.
In the decision by the ACT Supreme Court’s Acting Justice Patricia Kelly, she noted that during the Magistrates Court hearing, the woman gave evidence that was completely at odds with what she told police earlier.
She claimed police had pressured her to involve the child in the proceedings, and she told the child not to tell police what “mummy” had done to “daddy”.
Acting Justice Kelly said Special Magistrate Richter dismissed the two assault charges because self-defence had been properly raised in relation to those charges.
However, she said the special magistrate correctly observed that self-defence did not arise when it came to the facts for the choking offence.
She noted the special magistrate also thought the version of events the man provided to police was “more inculpatory, than exculpatory”.
Acting Justice Kelly said it was open to Special Magistrate Richter on the whole of the evidence to be satisfied of the man’s guilt.
“For these reasons, the appeal is dismissed,” she said.
If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT 02 6280 0900, the Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377 and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call Triple Zero.
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