• Judge • QC • DPP •
D.P.P. “Lost the Plot” Say Police When a relatively senior police officer accuses the DPP of having “lost the plot”, you have to wonder exactly what "plot" he is talking about. For the age-old prosecutorial system of the police investigating and charging while the prosecutors prosecute, seems to have slipped the mind of this detective. He must surely ...
It seems like only yesterday that we were subjected to one of the most ignominious days in the history of our State Parliament. When led by SA-BEST, our politicians, to the utter disbelief and dismay of the SA public, decided that they would no longer be answerable to the ICAC for mismanagement or maladministration. Asking ...
ICAC Changes: Why the Greens Are Wrong The Greens have published their rationale for voting in favour of changes to the ICAC. In a glossy, colourful release complete with photographs of no less than 27 carefree, happy, smiling faces we are told that all is well and that despite the changes, the ICAC is as strong as ...
Once again the grandiose banner of “Your Right To Know” has been trotted out to justify a newspaper’s dishonourable exercise of self-interest. Under the populist guise of doing a public service, the press repeats the fallacious argument that the fact that an individual has been charged with a sexual offence is “hidden” from the public. The ...
The appalling Ristevski sentence highlights a real problem in our criminal justice system and serious consideration should be given to amending aspects of our criminal procedure. A person accused of a crime who pleads guilty, is often given the benefit of a reduction in sentence as consideration for his guilty plea. It is dependent upon ...
John Howard’s disgraceful comments that Pell’s convictions for raping and molesting children doesn’t change his opinion of Pell at all, are clearly the ramblings of an individual who is struggling for relevance and has lost touch with reality. For Tony Abbott to express similar support, once again confirms that he has lost the capacity, if he ...
The Catholic church is fast becoming a global pariah. In an extraordinarily self-righteous pronouncement, the church announced that is going to ignore the findings of the Royal Commission and will flaunt the laws in SA requiring the reporting of any admissions of child sexual abuse. Presumably they already adopt the same attitude in relation to those ...
It is a well entrenched principle of sentencing in the criminal law that certain features of a case may be regarded as mitigatory in their effect on punishment. Such features might include a plea of guilty, a demonstration of remorse, forgiveness by the victim or assistance given to the investigating authorities. The absence of these features does ...
For better or worse the involvement of the British Empire in the settling of Australia has left us with many of the trappings of British, and particularly English, life. We have benefited as a nation from a heritage of parliamentary democracy, our legal system and, of course, cricket. However we have had good cause to question the ...
Retired Victorian Senior Crown Prosecutor and lecturer at the Australian Catholic University, Geoffrey Horgan QC has recently suggested that it would be hard for George Pell to receive a fair trial if indeed he was to be charged in relation to alleged child abuse. If he is right, we have a serious problem. While Victorian Police were ...