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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Assault - Aggravated (including causing bodily harm) |
Sentence: |
1 year suspended prison sentence |
Years Imprisoned: |
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Year Crime: |
2010 |
Year Convicted: |
2011 |
Year Cleared: |
2018 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Australia |
County or Region of Crime: |
Western Australia |
City of Crime: |
Perth |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated |
Summary of Case: |
"Tammy Louise Lysaght was wrongly convicted on July 25, 2011 of the aggravated unlawful assault of her 16-month old daughter, LMH, in Perth, Australia. On November 25, 2010 the 20-year-old Tammy Lysaght called an ambulance when she noticed her daughter had swollen eyelids. The doctor at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children who examined the girl determined she had a fractured skull and femur and extensive bruising to her buttocks. His report about her injuries and that he though she had been struck by an object was provided to the Department of Child Protection and the police. During two police interviews Lysaght denied inflicting her daughter's "extensive injuries." Her male live-in partner Robert Dacey also denied inflicting the injuries. However, in early July 2011 Dacey admitted to Lysaght that he had beat her daughter, but he told her that if she told the police he would kill her and her family members. Lysaght pled in exchange for a one-year suspended prison sentence. As a result of her conviction Lysaght's two children were taken into State care, and two children she later had were taken soon after birth. The children were placed with two relatives. She was only permitted to see her four children four times a year for three hours at a time. In 2016 Dacey confessed in a post on Facebook and to people that he had inflicted the injuries on the child. Based on his admissions the police reopened her case. Dacey admitted when interviewed by the police that he had inflicted the injuries on the child. When the police interviewed Lysaght she told them he had confessed to her that he beat her daughter, but she remained silent because he had threatened to kill her and her family members if she reported what he had done. Dacey was charged in January 2017 with aggravated unlawful assault, and in March 2017 he pled guilty and was sentenced to 20 months in prison. On November 29, 2017 Lysaght filed a petition to quash her conviction. She explained she had falsely pled guilty because of her former partner's death threats, and pressure put on her by her lawyer to plead guilty. He told her that if she went to trial and lost she would go to jail for a very long time and would not see her children again. She said, “I felt like I had to plead guilty. ... Because I'm innocent, because I want my kids back, my kids deserve to be back with me." Dean Richard Love was her lawyer who pressured her to plead guilty, and he was later disbarred from practicing law for extreme professional misconduct in an unrelated case. The Public Prosecutor's Office did not oppose her petition. On January 24, 2018 Lysaght's conviction and sentence were orally quashed by the Supreme Court Of Western Australia, Court Of Criminal Appeal. Justice Lindy Jenkins ruled that the new evidence of her former partner's confession and conviction established he was solely responsible for infliction of the girl's injuries, and consequently her conviction should be quashed as a miscarriage of justice. However, Justice Jenkins was not sympathetic for what happened to Lysaght because her conduct was largely responsible for her conviction and legal ordeal: she chose to plead guilty instead of informing the police her partner admitted to her he committed the crime. On February 7, 2018 Justice Jenkins issued her written ruling quashing Tammy Lysaght's convictions. With the quashing of her conviction Lysaght can seek to regain custody of her four children. An aunt was planning to adopt her youngest child, an 18-month-old girl, and the woman couldn't oppose the adoption with her felony conviction. The mother's name was not publicly disclosed for legal reasons. (Note: On Oct. 28, 2014 the Western Australia Supreme Court unanimously ordered the stricking of Dean Richard Love name from the roll of legal practitioners, because: "(1) between 21 March 2012 and 14 July 2012, by intentionally causing the publication of a webpage that was likely to mislead and deceive persons using it. The website was misleading in that it caused a person using it to believe they were submitting an application for legal aid to the Legal Aid Commission of Western Australia, when in fact the website would cause an email to be sent to the practitioner, who would then submit an application to Legal Aid on that person's behalf; (2) on 29 March 2012, in making an application for legal aid for representation of a named individual, in intentionally falsely representing that that individual had consulted with him and that he was of the opinion that the application had legal merit;" [Legal Profession Complaints Committee -v- Love [2014] WASC 389 (28 October 2014)] A search on February 8, 2018 of the Western Australian Bar Association website showed that Dean R. Love is not a listed as a practicing barrister." |
Conviction Caused By: |
False guilty plea under threat of violence by her domestic partner against her family if she didn't take responsibility for the injuries to her daughter. |
Innocence Proved By: |
"On January 24, 2018 the Western Australia Court of Appeal quashed the mother's conviction on the basis of the new evidence that her ex-partner had in fact committed the crime." |
Defendant Aided By: |
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
Yes |
Age When Imprisoned: |
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Age When Released: |
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Sex: |
Female |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
White |
Information Source 1: |
"Lysaght -v- Youlden [2018] WASC 38 (Western Australia Supreme Court, 2-7-2018) (Quashing conviction based on new evidence crime was committed by Robert Dacey.)" |
Information Location 1: |
http://decisions.justice.wa.gov.au/supreme/supdcsn.nsf/judgment.xsp?documentId=215B4FC4E86500BE4825822D0031DD58&action=openDocument |
Information Source 2: |
"Mother wins appeal over baby bashing conviction, By Elle Farcic, Perth Now (Perth, West Australia, Australia), January 25, 2018" |
Information Location 2: |
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/crime/mother-wins-appeal-over-baby-bashing-conviction-ng-b88725618z |
Information Source 3: |
"Perth mother’s child assault conviction overturned, By Elle Farcic (Staff), The West Australian, January 25, 2018" |
Information Location 3: |
https://thewest.com.au/news/crime/perth-mothers-child-assault-conviction-overturned-ng-b88725619z |
Information Source 4: |
"I'm innocent': Perth mother's desperate fight to get her kids back, By Heather McNeill, WAToday.com.au, January 23, 2018 " |
Information Location 4: |
http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/im-innocent-perth-mothers-desperate-fight-to-get-her-kids-back-20180123-h0n8ew.html |
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Comments About Case: |
Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org