A senior Aboriginal Legal Service lawyer has been acquitted of perverting the course of justice over an allegation he discouraged a domestic violence victim from giving evidence.
Paul Xavier Tobin was charged by West Australian police over an allegation he improperly discouraged a witness from giving evidence at Broome courthouse in 2019.
Mr Tobin, a senior lawyer for the Aboriginal Legal Service in the West Kimberley, was subject to a two-day trial over the allegation last month which heard from police prosecutors and officers about his alleged conduct.
Judge Stephen Lemonis handed down his verdict on Tuesday and found Mr Tobin not guilty of the charge.
In a complex legal argument, state prosecutor Paul Usher argued Mr Tobin was representing a woman accused of a domestic violence charge when he approached the victim.
Mr Usher said Mr Tobin asked him if he wanted the case against the woman to go ahead.
Mr Usher said Mr Tobin had leaned in and made the statement as a "proposition, rather than an open-ended question".
The victim pressed ahead with the case against the perpetrator and she was later found guilty over the incident.
Mr Tobin's defence lawyer argued it was impossible to define the intent behind his client's words and it was not open to determination whether Mr Tobin had tried to "intimidate" the victim.
He pointed to a long-standing adversarial relationship between Mr Tobin and the police prosecutor who had allegedly witnessed the interaction, and said it perhaps coloured how the lawyer's actions were perceived.
After delivering his acquittal, Judge Lemonis said he would publish his written judgement at a later date.
