Assault charges unresolved

September 7, 2022

Derby resident Stuart Rainbow has pleaded not guilty to intimidating and assaulting Council’s general manager Tim Watson at the Launceston Magistrates Court last week. 

This was the third time the pair had faced court over the matter with the case being adjourned on all occasions.

The incident relates to the moving of Mr Rainbow’s partner Leonie Smithhurst’s boundary fence earlier this year on April 14, a space that she had maintained for more than thirty years.

It’s understood Council works crews were instructed to dismantle the fence and move it approximately eight metres closer to her home as the fence was situated on Crown Land.

The couple live next to the Dorset Hotel. 

The defendant alleges that Ms Smithhurst did not receive any written consultation regarding the matter and were not provided with proof that Council leased that part of the land from Crown. 

The List does not stipulate who is the lessee of the land however the title is connected to the Tasman Highway and a directly adjacent block. 

Mr Rainbow’s defence counsel Bill Griffiths asked Magistrate Sharon Cure to postpone an application by Mr Watson for a restraint order until after the criminal charges are decided.

The application for the restraint order was originally set down for hearing on November 29. 

However, both the hearing and the application for a restraint order were adjourned until February 14, 2023.