The controversial reason husband accused of assault after his estranged wife read his dating app emails to their kids scored huge court win
An assault case between an estranged husband and wife has redefined ‘property’ under Australian law to include emails and text messages.
District Court judge Garry Neilson ruled to overturn a Sydney man’s assault charge last week after he grabbed his wife’s arm to stop her reading his emails to their children.
The ex-husband, given the pseudonym Mr Xerri, told the court he had moved back into the family home amid an ongoing bitter child custody battle.
He took to wearing a body camera around the home In order to protect himself from false allegations, the court heard.
That camera captured the moment he grabbed his wife’s arm to try and recover his iPad, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
The woman had been reading Mr Xerri’s emails – including dating app notifications from Bumble, vasectomy inquiries and ads for luxury holidays – to their children at the dining room table, which fuelled the man’s fear his children would think less of him.
Mr Xerri tried to take the iPad from his wife and grabbed her arm when she pulled back and brushed his hand away.
He was then charged and convicted of common assault by the Local Court.
A man was convicted of common assault after grabbing his wife’s arm to stop her reading his emails to their children
The man’s emails included dating app notifications from Bumble, vasectomy inquiries and ads for luxury holidays
Under NSW law, assault is defensible if a person was using physical force to protect their property.
Judge Neilson set a new precedent for Australia by accepting the emails were, in fact, Mr Xerri’s property.
‘The answer must be yes: they were sent to him by the relevant sender, not to the (wife). In short, the complainant was interfering with the appellant’s property, with his emails,’ the judge told the court.
Local Court Magistrate Julie Zaki had earlier rejected Mr Xerri’s defence as there was no precedent defining emails as property.
The matter had been further complicated by the fact that the iPad was owned by Mr Xerri’s daughter, rather than him.
However, the husband’s solicitor, Benjamin Goh, argued that defining emails and texts as property would bring the law ‘into line with modern day technology’.
‘Emails and text messages are now a pervasive part of people’s lives, often containing very personal and private information,’ Mr Goh said.
‘This case is now a precedent on how the legal system defines property in the modern age.
‘Someone rifling through your emails and text messages is no different to someone going through your actual physical mailbox.’
The court heard Mr Xerri and his ex-wife were married for 20 years before separating.
He initially moved out of the family home but returned while trying to get ‘fifty-fifty custody’ of their children.
When describing the iPad incident, Mr Xerri said: ‘When she started reading the emails … I was feeling embarrassed and intimidated … I didn’t want to let her know that, because I was scared that she was going to take it further and I was hoping she was going to stop.
‘Then when she started mentioning about Luxury Escapes and vasectomies I started to realise it wasn’t just Bumble emails that she had there,’ Mr Xerri said in evidence.
‘I started to wonder what the kids were thinking, like, … would (they) think bad of me if they were hearing these things, so I walked around the table, I went to take it [the device] from her and she resisted,’ he said.
‘I then put my hand on her arm and took the (device) off her.’
