The death of Luke Batty has prompted a review of Victoria Police’s procedures for executing warrants, after revelations that his killer should have been arrested for skipping bail. Under the existing system, only the police officer handling the case would be advised if there was a “bench warrant” issued due to the accused’s failure to attend court, and it would not be entered into the police computer for up to two weeks. A temporary change in procedure will cut the delay to four days, while a long-term IT solution is developed.
Judge criticises mandatory sentencing
A County Court judge has criticised the mandatory sentencing that applies to people smuggling offences. The comments came during a plea hearing for a refugee who was found guilty of helping other refugees, including his family, enter Australia. Judge Dean suggested the mandatory penalty would create injustice: “One can understand why it happened and why a person would want to assist their own family or his wife’s family to travel or leave circumstances of persecution. It’s not lawful but it’s certainly explicable. He goes to prison and they are permanent residents.” The offender must be sentenced to a head sentence of at least five years, and a non-parole period of at least three years. Late last year, the High Court ruled that the sentencing regime was valid.
ABC “dogf—er” defamation case to proceed
The NSW Supreme Court will allow a jury to decide whether the ABC’s “Chaser Boys” defamed political commentator Chris Kenny by displaying a photoshopped image of him having sex with a dog. The comedians claim the segment was satire, and was a legitimate response to Kenny’s frequent criticism of the ABC. Justice Beech-Jones did not accept that anyone would believe that Kenny had actually engaged in the act, but he did accept that “the image was such a massively disproportionate response … that it is capable of conveying that Mr Kenny is, in a general sense, a contemptible and disgusting person.” It will now be for a jury to decide whether that was actually conveyed. The Prime Minister has suggested the ABC should apologise and settle the case, but human rights professor Sarah Joseph believes it is an important test case to determine the legal boundaries of satire.
White paper push for new division of powers
Tony Abbott is expected to launch a push to change the balance of state and commonwealth responsibilities through the release of a “white paper” on federalism. During the 2013 election campaign, Abbott said the division of powers was “our biggest political problem”, and promised a review: “The objective will be to reduce and end, as far as possible, the waste, duplication and second guessing between different levels of government that has resulted, for instance, in the Commonwealth employing 6000 health bureaucrats even though it doesn’t run a single hospital.” If the Liberals win state elections in SA and Tasmania this weekend, they will be in power everywhere except the ACT, which would allow Abbott to be bolder with his proposals. “It is always more helpful to be working with like-minded people who want to be constructive,” he said.
Cardinal says Church should be suable
The former archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he no longer supports the Catholic Church’s position that it could not be sued: “Whatever position was taken by the lawyers during the litigation, or by lawyers or individuals within the Archdiocese following the litigation, my own view is that the Church in Australia should be able to be sued in cases of this kind.” Cardinal Pell was in charge of the Archdiocese of Sydney when it ran what is now known as “the Ellis defence”. In Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church v Ellis [2007] NSWCA 117, the NSW Court of Appeal held that because priests were not employees, the Church was not vicariously liable for their actions. This effectively means that individual priests can be sued, but the Church can not—which diminishes the ability of victims of child sexual abuse to obtain compensation.
Jury directions just not cricket
A fresh trial has been ordered in a Queensland rape case, after the trial judge explained the concept of “beyond reasonable doubt” using an LBW cricket analogy: “if you’re not sure that that ball is really going to hit the stumps or whether there’s some element of doubt about whether the ball pitched in line or not, you have to give the benefit – the umpires have to give the benefit of the doubt to the batsman. And that’s the thing about criminal trials; the benefit of the doubt goes to the defendant.” The Supreme Court of Queensland Court of Appeal held that the analogy was misleading, and that it might have given cricket fans on the jury a disproportionate influence. In Victoria, judges are guided on this point by sections 20 and 21 of the Jury Directions Act 2013, which was passed in response to a VLRC inquiry.
Superhero strategy for self-represented litigants
When comic book lawyer Matt Murdock couldn’t appear in court due to speculation that he was the blind, acrobatic superhero Daredevil, he came up with an alternative plan: coaching his clients to represent themselves in court. Now a Melbourne law firm has set up a similar scheme: “offering ‘court coaching’ for a lower fee to those unable to afford, or who do not want, full legal representation. This involves a one-hour conversation with [a barrister] who gives clients tips on how to present themselves and their arguments in court.” The new service reflects a developing trend in Victorian courts; the County Court has established a dedicated coordinator to assist self-represented litigants, and the Supreme Court says they make up “about 20 per cent of all [civil] litigants, compared with 3 per cent of people facing criminal charges”.
Newspaper launches campaign against family violence
A NSW newspaper has announced its plan to “Shine a Light on domestic violence”. In an editorial on International Women’s Day, it “launched a year-long campaign to illuminate the public and our leaders on what remains a national tragedy for a country that purports to be civilised, tolerant and safe.” The campaign began by highlighting failures of government, reporting on calls for domestic violence to be addressed in the primary school curriculum, and questioning whether defences to murder adequately protect victims of domestic violence. The campaign comes in the wake of the NSW’s government’s new laws to address alcohol-fuelled violence, which critics say ignore the much bigger problem of family violence.
10 men facing “bleak, boring and scary” life
Crime reporter John Silvester considers the plight of the ten Victorian men who have been sentenced to life in prison without parole: “Those who refer to prisons as luxurious motel-style facilities either have never been inside one or need to check Trip Advisor before booking their next holiday destination (a toilet seat would be nice). Prisons are bleak, boring and scary.” He notes that “[i]t is not only civil libertarians and subeditors who call for shorter sentences. Many police and prosecutors privately say young offenders should be sent to jail only as a last resort, while career criminals should be treated severely.”
Indigenous backbenchers threaten to quit
The NT Government’s four Indigenous MPs are threatening to break away from the Country Liberal Party and start their own party. Constituents in remote communities have been disappointed by broken election promises, and the backbench MPs say they are being ignored by their party’s ministers. Their failure to influence government policies is surprising, as it was reported last year that the Indigenous MPs “hold the balance of power in a caucus of 16”, and were instrumental in Adam Giles’s appointment to the chief ministership. However, the group’s leader, Alison Anderson, was demoted from cabinet last September. She has defected from a political party before: in 2009, she quit as a Labor MP, sitting as an independent for two years before joining the CLP.