Mr Hart (30) of Cunningham Terrace, Collie, pleaded not guilty to the charge of assaulting his cousin, Shanolla Marie Blurton, on August 6, 2008.

Ms Blurton said in evidence that she was drinking with friends at her aunt’s house on August 6 when Mr Hart arrived.

“We argued about a previous incident,” she said.

“He then grabbed me by the throat, so I hit him in the head with a cup. I decided to leave, but when I walked outside, Bevan approached me with a block splitter. He swung and hit me three times in the legs.”

The defence lawyer asked Ms Blurton why the claim Mr Hart had strangled her was not in her statement to police. “Is it because it did not happen?”

Ms Blurton said when she gave her statement to police she did not think it was important.

The defence lawyer also said that in the police statement Ms Blurton claimed to have been hit only once, not three times.

Ms Blurton said she did not think it was important.

Mr Hart disagreed with Ms Blurton’s version of events.

“When I arrived at the house she got upset and called me a black dog and hit me in the head with a cup,” he said.

“So I left through the back door and went home. I did not hit her.”

In finishing, the police prosecutor said he would allege Mr Hart did strike Ms Blurton with the block splitter.

The defence lawyer said Ms Blurton’s version of events was not reliable because she gave different evidence in her police statement to what she gave in the witness box.

Magistrate Calvin Fisher said there was no evidence to convict Mr Hart and he ordered the charges to be dismissed.

He ordered Mr Hart to pay costs of $2000.