Criminal trial on multiple intimate partner violence charges, including assault, assault by strangulation, uttering a death threat, criminal harassment, and two admitted breaches of a release order.
The case turned on the credibility and reliability of the complainant, whose evidence the court found seriously undermined by evasiveness, admitted dishonesty, contradictions about post-arrest contact, and authenticated WhatsApp communications suggesting a possible financial motive to lie.
Applying the reasonable doubt standard and the framework governing confirmatory evidence, the court held there was no sufficiently probative evidence capable of restoring confidence in the disputed allegations.
The accused was acquitted on all charges to which he pleaded not guilty, and the guilty pleas to the two fail-to-comply counts were limited factually to a chance encounter followed by prohibited contact.
