Assault and violent offences in Queensland

The ladder of assault charges

Section 245 defines an assault: striking, touching, moving or applying force to another person, directly or indirectly, without their consent. It also covers a threatening gesture where you have an actual or apparent present ability to carry it out. No injury is required. A push counts.

The dividing lines are medical, not moral. Bodily harm is any bodily injury that interferes with health or comfort, so bruising and a split lip qualify. A wound requires the true skin, the dermis, to be broken. Grievous bodily harm means the loss of a distinct part or organ, serious disfigurement, or an injury that would endanger life or cause permanent injury to health if left untreated.

What the prosecution has to prove

For assault occasioning bodily harm, three things: that you assaulted the complainant, that the assault was unlawful, and that bodily harm resulted. For grievous bodily harm the prosecution does not have to prove you intended the injury, only that you unlawfully did grievous bodily harm. A single punch that fractures an eye socket is a section 320 charge even where you never meant it.

The evidence is almost always CCTV, body worn camera, an ambulance or hospital record. Nightclub CCTV on the Gold Coast is routinely overwritten within 28 days, so a preservation request needs to go out immediately.

Defences that actually run

• Self defence, sections 271 and 272. If the assault on you was unprovoked, you may use force that is reasonably necessary to defend yourself. Where you reasonably apprehend death or grievous bodily harm, the force you can lawfully use goes further. The prosecution must disprove it beyond reasonable doubt.
• Provocation, sections 268 and 269. A full defence to assault charges, though not to grievous bodily harm or wounding. It requires a sudden loss of self control before there was time for passion to cool.
• Accident, section 23. Where the injury was not intended, not foreseen and not reasonably foreseeable by an ordinary person. Frequently the real issue in a one punch case.
• Consent, section 245. Force applied with consent is not an assault. Relevant in sport and in agreed fights, though consent has limits where grievous bodily harm is intended or caused.
• Identification. In a crowded venue at 2am, the question of who threw the punch is often genuinely open. Do not concede it because you were there.

What sentences actually look like

A first common assault with no injury, an early plea and no history usually resolves at a fine or a good behaviour bond, often with no conviction recorded under section 12 of the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 (Qld). Assault occasioning bodily harm with a genuine injury is more likely to attract probation, community service or a short suspended term, and the recording of a conviction becomes a live fight.

Two things push a sentence up sharply. The first is a domestic violence flag, which must be entered on your criminal history under section 12A. The second is an offence in a licensed premises safe night precinct, where community service is generally mandatory for offences of violence committed while adversely affected by an intoxicating substance under section 108B.