At Mirza Kwok, Defence Lawyers, we understand that complainants in an alleged domestic violence context will sometimes make false allegations as a result of the romantic relationship failing. Whether the domestic relationship disintegrated as a result of infidelity, financial arguments, or personal disagreements; often the complainant can emotionally feel bitter, upset, and vengeful. Allegations of domestic violence frequently arise out of the complainant’s spite against the accused. In other cases, complainants will falsely accuse their partner in order to secure custody of the children or to keep sole possession of the matrimonial home for Family Law purposes. Those who have sponsored their domestic partner into Canada through our immigration laws financially commit themselves to the debts of their domestic partner. A complainant may allege Criminal Code offences in order to relieve themselves of their financial obligations to support their domestic partner when the domestic relationship breaks down.
Recently, in a judge and jury trial, we successfully defended a client whose domestic relationship failed. The complainant was tremendously controlling and jealous. She was upset that the accused had moved on and started dating another person. As a result of this, she made highly implausible, historically dated, and serious domestic violence allegations against the accused. If convicted, a jail sentence was very likely. The defence of this matter included extensive investigation efforts into securing records that directly contradicted the complainant’s false allegations; records that the prosecution had refused to disclose to the Defence. After presenting the contradictory evidence at trial and a very short jury deliberation, the accused was found not guilty of all criminal charges.