In
September 2024 Michael Lyon lost his bid for re-election as
Byron Shire mayor by a very wide margin and limped into the ranks of
shire councillors.
Since
then.......
ECHO,
11 October 2021:
While
Cr Michael Lyon was affirming himself to undertake the duties of
office on Thursday morning in the Byron Shire Council Chambers, most
people in the room wouldn’t have known that the ex-mayor had
recently spent a night in the police watch house after allegedly
breaching an AVO placed on him in August.
Staff
from the Tweed Byron Police say that at about 2.20pm on Sunday,
October 6, police were called to a home at The Pocket, following
reports of a domestic incident.
Officers
attached to Tweed Byron Police District arrived and were told a man,
Cr Michael Lyon, had allegedly breached an enforceable AVO.
Cr
Michael Lyon arrested at The Pocket
No
injuries were reported at the premises on the day. Following
inquiries, police arrested Cr Lyon at the scene.
He
was taken to Byron Bay Police Station where was charged with breach
apprehended Domestic Violence Order, intimidation (DV) and breach of
bail.
Cr
Lyon was refused bail to appear before Lismore Local Court on Monday,
October 7....
As
well as the new charges from the weekend incident, Cr Lyon will face
two charges – one count of assault and one count of
stalk/intimidate, to be heard on March 11, 2025 at Tweed Heads
Courthouse, with a mention of the AVO also scheduled for that date.
ECHO,
21 October 2021:
Byron
Bay’s former mayor and current councillor Michael Lyon was back in
court today, following his alleged breach of an AVO earlier this
month at The Pocket....
...the
court was told Michael Lyon was pleading not guilty to the most
recent charges of stalk/intimidation and breaching the existing
apprehended violence order, both in relation to his wife.
There
was then some discussion about whether all the charges could be heard
on the already established date at Tweed Heads Court House on 11
March 2025. Cr Layon’s lawyer, Mr Weller, said he had made
preliminary enquiries with the court, and estimated an additional 90
minutes would be required to hear the latest charges.
Magistrate
Stafford asked, ‘What’s the more substantive charge?’ Mr Weller
replied, ‘assault’ before attempting to say something about the
alleged victim filing documents to withdraw the charge, but
Magistrate Stafford cut him off abruptly.
Mr
Croner confirmed that the DPP had carriage of both matters, and was
happy for the cases to be run together at Tweed Heads on 11 March.
The magistrate said all this was a waste of the court’s time, and
that the parties should have organised themselves better in advance.
Why
Tweed?
Apparently
unfamiliar with the Lyon case, Magistrate Stafford then asked why the
matter was ever sent to Tweed Heads. Croner explained that the case
was heard outside Byron Bay because of the defendant’s position in
the local community (Cr Lyon was mayor at the time of the original
alleged DV charges in August 2024).
Mr
Weller next sought to bring the matter forward to next Monday, but
the magistrate said that was too soon, as the court’s listings were
overwhelmed.
She
then decided to fix the next court date (another mention, to fix a
hearing date) to 11 November 2024 in Tweed Heads. Michael Lyon looked
visibly distressed at this news.
A
discussion of AVO and bail conditions followed, with nothing being
substantively changed. Cr Lyon remains unable to visit the property
at The Pocket without the prior written agreement of his wife, and he
is only able to contact her via a lawyer.
Note:
The most recent domestic
violence crime statistics released by NSW BOCSAR show that in
the twelve months to June 2024 there were 1,074 females in the
Richmond-Tweed statistical area reported by NSW Police as
experiencing domestic violence.
With
116 of these domestic violence assaults occurring in the Byron
Shire local government area, producing a Byron domestic violence
assault rate per 100,000 population of 317.7.
