• Judge • QC • DPP •
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 ...
The least surprising aspect of Senator Anning’s speech was that virtually every ‘fact’ he asserted in his diatribe was simply wrong. He did us all a favour not only by exposing the depths of his prejudices but of revealing his cavernous ignorance. The most disturbing aspect of his speech was the demonstration of how an individual ...
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 ...
Think of every woman you’ve ever loved. Think of every woman you’ve ever known. Think of every woman you’ve ever seen. Think of every woman you’ve ever heard of. If they are in Australia, more than half of them have been sexually harassed. More than half of them. Just read the latest report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Is there any ...
If there was ever any doubt that our dismal crop of politicians act out of self interest rather than principle, it was removed today when we saw the final death and burying of any hope that an honourable application of the principle of ministerial responsibility might prevail in our parliaments. The PM's attitude has brought ...
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 ...