NSW father charged over inciting 7yo daughter to attack teacher is acquitted
The father was convicted over encouraging his seven-year-old daughter to kick and punch a teacher but had his punishment thrown out on appeal.
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A father who was charged over inciting his daughter to attack a schoolteacher has had his conviction quashed, with the taxpayer having to foot his legal bill.
The father, who can’t be named, appeared in the NSW Local Court last September and was convicted over encouraging his seven-year-old daughter to kick and punch a teacher if the teacher spoke to her.
He successfully appealed in the District Court and had his conviction quashed last March.
The court was told the teacher was the relieving deputy principal at the school attended by the father’s three children when she took his daughter to him at a gate after class.
The teacher said she then heard him saying to his daughter “she was not to talk to me, she was never to talk to me and if I spoke with her she should kick me and hit me”.
Police interviewed the father’s daughter several days later but did not ask her anything about the incident before charging him, the court heard.
Lawyers for the father argued the failure by police to interview his children showed the investigation was conducted in an improper manner.
Judge Justin Smith SC found it was unreasonable police did not ask his daughter about the incident and ordered the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions to pay his legal bill of $21,000.
“What is left entirely unexplained is why ... they did not ask her a single question about the events in respect of which her father was subsequently arrested and charged,” the judge said.
“It is unnecessary to consider whether the result of an interview could, or would, have changed the course of the investigation.
“It is enough that I am satisfied that, in the circumstances, it was unreasonable not to have interviewed the daughter.
“I am satisfied on that basis that … there should be an order for costs.”
Mr Smith said a lawyer acting on behalf of the father had told prosecutors they would not apply for costs if they dropped the charges but they refused in August 2019.
“He invited the prosecution to withdraw all the charges and said that if that occurred, (the father) would not seek costs and would undertake not to pursue civil claims in relation to the charges — that offer was not accepted,” the judge said.