Sydney woman wins court battle to clear name after being charged with assaulting husband
A Sydney woman has won an almost three-year court battle to clear her name after being charged with assaulting her husband. The woman has told the ABC she was heavily pregnant when she called police claiming her husband had assaulted her after months of escalating abuse, before he turned the tables. Advocates say her case highlights a systemic problem within New South Wales police.
Transcript
00:00 "I will never forget that day."
00:03 The woman who can't be identified spent the next two and a half years fighting to clear
00:08 her name, while trying to escape an allegedly abusive relationship.
00:12 "I've had incidents where he's threatened me again and I will not even go to the police."
00:18 Her husband, who feared deportation back to Lebanon, claimed she was the one who assaulted
00:22 him, showing police some minor injuries.
00:26 But a magistrate didn't believe his story, especially after hearing a secretly recorded
00:31 phone call between the pair.
00:33 He told the court the phone call included implied admissions that she did not assault
00:38 him and that he initiated the contact, that his fear of deportation and loss of contact
00:44 with the child made him entrench his position not to tell the truth to police.
00:50 The case was dismissed.
00:51 The woman has since made an official complaint to NSW police, arguing the investigating officers
00:57 should have determined that her husband wasn't credible, especially given her previous call
01:02 to police just three weeks before the incident.
01:05 But the officer's superior found they acted appropriately, despite the court's ruling.
01:09 "I want an apology.
01:11 I want an apology for what I went through for two years and nine months."
01:14 NSW police said there was no further action expected in response to the woman's complaint,
01:20 but said it was "committed to continually improving the way we respond to and prevent
01:25 domestic and family violence."
01:27 Frontline advocates say police need more specialised training.
01:31 "We need to have a better framework that will assist police in identifying the victim and
01:38 identifying the primary aggressor."
01:40 This woman is hoping her story will become a catalyst for that change.
01:45 and--
01:46 [BLANK_AUDIO]