A prominent Perth doctor has been acquitted of assaulting his wife during an argument over another woman last year.
Dr Anthony Bell was charged with one count of assault occasioning bodily harm after his wife, former human rights lawyer and professional speaker Rabia Siddique, claimed he shoved her to the ground in April last year.
But Magistrate Gavin MacLean found the evidence did not support this beyond a reasonable doubt.
In his judgement, he also noted "a body of evidence to suggest that (Ms Siddique) had engaged in a vendetta against (Dr Bell) and had an axe to grind".
In April last year Dr Bell was the director of medical services for St John of God hospital in Midland, but the court heard he was forced to resign from that position after he was charged.
The estranged couple had been arguing in the days leading up to April 27 last year, over Dr Bell's plans to meet up with a former female colleague.
After Dr Bell returned home from work late on April 26, he found a note stuck to the door demanding he "pack a bag and leave".
The couple had another argument that night and Dr Bell slept on the couch.
Dr Bell said he awoke in the early hours of April 27 feeling anxious and decided to leave the house and go to work.
The court heard Ms Siddique followed him through the house trying to speak with him again, and when he tried to leave through the front and side doors she was between him and the door.
She then claimed she followed him to their side gate and placed an open hand on his shoulder and asked him again to stay and talk with her.
She told the court Dr Bell said in a gruff voice "for Christ's sake, f*** off" then turned and used both hands to push her and she "flew backwards" into a pot plant, part of which shattered from the impact.
She told the court on Monday that as she lay on the ground screaming in pain, Dr Bell left.
"He walked away," she said.
"He heard me screaming and sobbing, he would have known I was in pain."
"He left me there like an animal."
Bell refutes wife's story
Giving evidence on Tuesday Dr Bell said this version of events was "simply not true".
Dr Bell told the court he sprinted to the side door and got to the side gate before Ms Siddique, but she grabbed the strap of his satchel.
He said he heard a "crunching sound" behind him but kept going because " he had the momentum" and he "needed to keep moving forward".
When asked if he heard her screaming, he said he didn't specifically remember her screaming and yelling at that "point any more than she had been screaming and yelling prior".
Photos of the damaged planter pot were shown to the court.
In delivering his judgement, Magistrate Gavin MacLean said "on careful examination, particularly having regard to the impact site, … it's clear that damage to the planter is on the opposite end of the planter box (from the) gate".
He said in the version presented by Ms Siddique, "you would expect damage to occur on the gate side".
Credibility of evidence examined
Justice MacLean also found inconsistencies in Ms Siddique's evidence affected its credibility, whereas Dr Bell's evidence on key parts of the night in question was "clear and unchanging", although Magistrate MacLean noted Ms Siddique was "doing her best to recall accurately" what happened.
"Where an account has changed over time and where it is not consistent with objective provable facts, that has an impact … irrespective of how honest that version of events has been delivered through the course of testimony," Magistrate MacLean said.
Ms Siddique told the court she only went to the front door and side gate once each, whereas footage of an interview with police later that day she recounted doing so a number of times.
Dr Bell's lawyer, Simon Freitag SC, argued this was important because it showed Ms Siddique was minimising her attempts to block him from leaving.
The credibility of her evidence as to the severity of her injuries was also examined, though the magistrate noted it was clear she did sustain injury to her wrist.
Ms Siddique told the court the incident had left her with "searing pain" in her back and the fear she had broken her wrist or back, and had to "wipe away blood" from wounds to her arms and legs.
She also described lying on her bed screaming in pain as her husband applied a topical ointment to her injuries some days later.
However she only described minor injuries to a triple zero dispatcher and police who interviewed her later that day.
'Sense of rage and anger'
When this was put to her, she told the court she was attempting to downplay the seriousness of her injuries in an attempt to protect Dr Bell and that at that time she was in shock.
The magistrate said he had regard for the fact people could respond in different ways to family violence, but said it was nonetheless "difficult to reconcile" Ms Siddique's accounts to the dispatcher and police with what she told the court.
"One of the issues I have to have regard to is whether there is some alternative explanation," the magistrate said.
"It's clear Ms Siddique was at different times (in the lead up to and on the day of the incident) very angry at (Dr) Bell."
He noted that she was particularly concerned with a plan by Dr Bell to meet with a female former colleague.
"Her sense of rage and anger in respect to that and other matters was very clear," he said.
Magistrate MacLean said he also had "some regard" to the fact the police complaint was lodged in July, "well and truly after the relationship came to an end" and followed an abortive attempt at reconciliation.
Dr Bell was awarded $15,000 in costs.
