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.
At the August hearing in Tweed Heads, an interim order prohibiting reporting of the AVO and criminal case in which Cr Lyon was the defendant, had been lifted. Cr Lyon said at the time that he was entirely innocent of the charges against him, saying that it had ‘all been driven by the police’.
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.
Previous stories about this case can be found here.
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