Hard for me to believe that Spedding would be gentlemanly, after trying to convince a victim to give him a character reference, let alone the violent things he is accused of.
I think there is likely another reason why a committal was waived, and it is all about an S.91/93 application. That is, if there will be no chance for the defence to question a weak potential witness/weak evidence during the committal hearing, and expose some Prosecutional weakness.
"Waiver of committal – an accused has a right to waive their right to committal with the consent of the prosecutor. This can be done at any time of the proceedings.
It is hard to see any tactical benefits in doing so although if there are to be no ss.91/93 applications or submissions on whether or not the accused should be committed for trial, there would be no disadvantage in doing so."
(A s.91/93 application is an application to have a person who made a written statement attend to give evidence. Importantly, it must be a statement (or evidence) that the prosecution intends to tender as evidence in the committal proceedings – in some cases the DPP may say that they are not relying on certain evidence thereby preventing an application.)
http://www.austcrimlaw.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Committal_hearing_essentials-2012.pdf