Lily Belfer represented a defendant charged with two counts of racially aggravated intentional harassment, alarm, or distress, and two counts of breach of a restraining order. The Prosecution case relied upon three witnesses and video evidence.
The jury were made aware of the defendant’s previous convictions for racially aggravated offences and the specific circumstances of the defendant’s prior harassment conviction (putting people in fear of violence) involving the same complainants.
Following a successful Defence application, the first trial was halted after the complainant had already given evidence-in-chief. During the re-trial the following day, Lily identified major inconsistencies between the complainant’s new testimony and the previous account. Upon Lily’s application, she was allowed access to the audio recordings to compile a transcript of the earlier testimony given at trial. During the re-trial, Lily cross-