David's day in court

Finally this whole stupid court thing has come to an end today, although not until after a bit of court-ing. I decided to be more than just moral support today, but rather the partner concerned about David's well being. He wanted me to be there with him as part of it this time, taking part in talking with people that he had to, etc. After all darlings, I've had rather a bit of court experience over the years.....

Anyway. As chance would have it, David has seen his doctor just last Friday concerning the depression issues arising the last few months and had gotten a rather strong open ended Centrelink doctors certificate as a continuation of the last one (that BTW ran out yesterday just as he took the new one in as it's taken so long to get this far with it). She had also given him an equally strongly worded Patient Summary that he needed for this Housing application we're about to attempt. Both of them weren't pretty. So I scanned and printed out copies of them for court today, along with a statement about it all from him that I helped him write a while back.

We get in there, David is called and appears. The magistrate asks if he wants legal advice, which he does, and is sent out to get it off some free legal person there who represents him thereafter for today. We go out and talk to her, me being introduced to her as his partner. I explain about the health issues taking their toll on his head, and that I was concerned that he was in no fit state to get up in court and represent himself. She reads the stuff he has and we go back into court to try to get the Hearing postponed again as in the time since last court date David's head condition had deteriorated hugely.

Sounded like a great plan. He'd planned to represent himself but since then he'd had other issues going on. I said I thought it wasn't justice to have a person as vulnerable as this have to stand up in court and defend themselves. Unfortunately the magistrate didn't see it the same way and ruled the case to go ahead today.

So we have David, who I'm worried about, having to go into court today to accomplish this. I know he's not able to. His hands are shaking and he looks scared. As it turned out though, there was another option.

None of this evidence he had could get seen by the magistrate in a hearing, or something like that, which is why the magistrate last time couldn't look at anything. However, if David now pleaded guilty, the magistrate would read everything as part of making her judgement, and would take it all into consideration. David just wanted to get this thing over with today, as it's just another drama to deal with that he doesn't need. So that was the next plan, to change his plea to guilty and have it finished there and then. We go back into court.

Plea is changed, bla, and the magistrate begins to read it all....... Like I said, it wasn't pretty. It was what David had to prove his side of the story. I think you could see her face slowly change by the time she got to the end of page one of David's statement. 

The defence and prosecution had already chatted and agreed on an easy way to go forward with this. As he'd plead guilty, the punishment was now in the hands of the magistrate. The defence advised the magistrate that David had plead not guilty before as he was concerned about something permanent being on his record that might affect his nursing opportunities. The magistrate continues to read, on and on. There's for a while only the sounds of people stuffing around with paper in the court room (particularly the bloody cop sitting directly behind me..... grrrrr...). After what was I guess about ten minutes, she makes her judgement. 

She was very understanding of David's present situation and state of mind. She was also very understanding of David's side of the story as well. That's the only way I could understand the less than slap of the wrist she gave him. The police prosecutor had concurred with the defence earlier that an AVO instated for a year against David was fine. I mean after all the prick lives up in Queensland anyway. So the magistrate gave him that. The rest was a one year good behaviour bond under section 10; meaning it wouldn't be on his record. Not even a slap on the wrist, perhaps just a little hand wave darlings. Yep, she knew what was going on; that the charge against David was malicious and an abuse of the court system. This was an excellent result!

Oh I nearly forgot. The shithead from Queensland up there living with his fuckin mother at about fuckin 40 (ie loser) who started all of this. I was wondering if he was going to turn up this time. Yes he did! Ha ha ha ha ha.......... We never saw him though as he was kept in a separate room outside (tiny little things they are) for hours whilst we went about all of this in court. Yes, the cops had flown him all the way down from Queensland for this, the great Hearing. Hah! And it never happened. Hah! He'll probably be on the next flight back up there. Hah!