17-07-2025
NSW Police officer Reuben Timperley found not guilty of multiple domestic violence offences
A suspended NSW Police officer accused of domestic violence offences against a former partner has been found not guilty of multiple assaults and intimidation.
Constable Reuben Timperley, 28, was charged in January with seven offences against the woman, alleged to have occurred while he was off-duty between October 2022 and March 2024.
On Wednesday, three counts of stalking/intimidation intending to cause fear of physical harm were dismissed after a hearing in Parramatta Local Court, primarily due to evidentiary aspects.
Magistrate Anthony Spence found there was no case to answer.
On Thursday, he also found the officer not guilty of three common assaults and a further count of intimidation.
Magistrate Spence described the woman's evidence as "reasonably compelling" in some respects, but said he held concerns as to its reliability, leaving him with reasonable doubts about Mr Timperley's guilt.
The woman recalled an incident between March and May 2023 where she alleged she was pushed onto a bed by Mr Timperley, before he pinned her down and held her wrist.
The prosecutor characterised the alleged assault as "extremely forceful".
It was not alleged there was any physical blow delivered, but the woman told the court she "felt like he was going to hurt me".
Mr Timperley's defence lawyer, Paul McGirr, put to the complainant that there was "pushing and shoving" and suggested she was the aggressor, which she denied.
She accepted that during this incident, she bit him on the chest.
Mr Timperley was also accused of assaulting the woman by pushing her at her house in November or December 2023, at a point when they were no longer in a relationship.
The woman recalled arguments had developed and she asked him to leave, before Mr Timperley "just switch[ed]" and began to verbally abuse her.
Under cross-examination, she denied she was trying to stop him leaving.
In March 2024, the woman visited Mr Timperley and another argument developed, before he allegedly pushed her as she was leaving.
According to the prosecution's case, during that same incident, Mr Timperley said: "You're going to go down".
In her evidence, the woman recalled that alleged comment as "you're going to be f****ed".
She gave evidence that Mr Timperley followed her to the lifts and she felt intimidated.
"I felt I wasn't going to be able to get out of the situation where he was getting increasingly more aggravated," she told the court.
Magistrate Spence said CCTV of that incident was "open to conflicting interpretations".
In finding Mr Timperley not guilty of the remaining four charges, he said issues of credibility and reliability were "extremely important" in a word-against-word case.
The magistrate said the woman presented as a "confident and articulate young woman" who gave coherent evidence.
He considered that her apparent motivation for giving a police statement in March last year was for restricted conduct orders against Mr Timperley.
The court heard the woman felt "he was controlling me" and that Mr Timperley had mentioned a previous legal matter "that made no sense to me why he would know that".
There was no evidence presented that Mr Timperley had used his position to access the police database and access restricted information.
Magistrate Spence described the officer's evidence as given "in a very calm and seemingly dispassionate way".
Mr McGirr has sought a costs order, taking aim at the police investigation and arguing investigating officers "weren't interested in anything that was exculpatory".
In a separate case, Mr Timperley had also previously been found guilty of illegally accessing the police database in 2021 to look up a woman he was dating.
He was spared a conviction, handed a conditional release order and was allowed to keep his job.
Mr Timperley's employment was placed "under review" when he was charged over the more recent allegations in January.
NSW Police confirmed he remained suspended without pay as of Thursday.
