Wendy Gillespie’s assault conviction overturned on appeal
A woman found guilty of assaulting a wildlife volunteer has had her conviction overturned on appeal. Find out why.
Central Coast
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A self-styled animal welfare warrior convicted of assaulting an Australian Seabird Rescue volunteer has had her conviction quashed on appeal.
Wendy Gillespie, 59, of Ourimbah, was convicted of common assault in Wyong Local Court in June over an incident on October 3 last year.
It was alleged in court a wildlife rescuer was called to Blackwall to assist two pelicans in distress.
However when he arrived on a small sandbar, he was met by Ms Gillespie in a kayak who confronted him in relation to the birds.
The court heard she was carrying on so aggressively the seabird rescue volunteer started filming her on his phone and she allegedly pushed him in the chest — an allegation she denied.
Ms Gillespie later pleaded guilty to menacing the volunteer after getting his mobile phone number and sending him an abusive message in which she called him a “spineless tosser”, an “arrogant mega coward” and a “tragic oxygen thief”.
She also rang him incessantly to the point a police officer answered the phone while the victim was at Wyong Police Station reporting the harassment.
She pleaded not guilty to the assault but after a Local Court hearing, a magistrate found Ms Gillespie guilty of assault and put her on a community corrections order for six months.
She was also ordered to stay off the booze for three months.
Ms Gillespie appealed the conviction in Gosford District Court where her appeal was upheld by Judge Tanya Bright and the conviction overturned.
Outlining Her Honour’s reasons for setting aside the conviction, Ms Gillespie’s solicitor Marc Riviere said in a letter that the original magistrate failed to take into account Ms Gillespie’s good character.
He said the Judge also found the prosecution failed to produce key witnesses or the mobile phone footage taken by the victim, and there were numerous “inconsistencies” in the victim’s evidence.
In an email to the Express Advocate Ms Gillespie said the publicity surrounding her assault charge had caused her “untold damage to my civic standing in the community and my international standing as a Pelican Specialist Group Member writing scientific papers”.
Ms Gillespie further stated the incident and the past 13 months had come at a huge cost “to my health, and to my finances as a self funded (12k in defence costs) wildlife welfare activist and scientist”.