Author adminPosted on Categories Criminal law Leave a comment on “What if I know that my client is guilty?”
What if a lawyer knows that their own client is guilty of the offence(s) for which they have been charged? This is a question that lawyers are often asked, although perhaps surprisingly not often by criminal clients.
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Author adminPosted on Categories Criminal law 2 Comments on High Court majority dismisses Brent Huxley’s appeal for murder of Michael McCabe
A recent High Court decision demonstrates the often highly technical and complex task of crafting directions for a jury which accurately and unambiguously state how the law relates to the case.
On 18 September 2019, Brent Malcolm Huxley was convicted after a trial before Justice North in the Townsville Supreme Court of the murder of Michael James McCabe. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
McCabe, a known illicit drug user, was murdered on or about 16 August 2015. Police found McCabe’s “partly-skeletonised and partly-mummified” body in remote bushland at the bottom of a steep, rocky embankment in Crystal Creek, north of Townsville, on September 17, 2015.
An autopsy revealed Mr McCabe had multiple fractures to his face, consistent with having a large rock dropped on his head.
Another man named Jason Douglas Taylor was also convicted of McCabe’s murder in a separate trial. Taylor’s appeal against conviction was subsequently dismissed.
The Crown case was that there was a “plan” schemed by Huxley to murder Mr McCabe with the help of others. It was alleged McCabe had been assaulted hours before his death on 15 August 2015 in a unit in Burnda Street, Townsville.
A second co‑accused named Matthew Luke Horima Rewha was charged with the unlawful assault occasioning bodily harm in company of McCabe at the unit on 15 August 2015. A third co‑accused, Leonie Doyle, was Huxley’s girlfriend at the time. She was charged with being an accessory after the fact to the manslaughter of McCabe.
The prosecution alleged that Rewha assaulted McCabe in the unit, and that Huxley subsequently murdered McCabe on 16 August 2015 at Crystal Creek or elsewhere in Queensland.
Hess’ evidence
The primary evidence against Huxley was from Darren Hess, who claimed that Huxley had confessed he had committed the murder to him in August 2015.
Hess gave evidence at the trial that Huxley had “showed up” at his address in Townsville on three occasions in August 2015. On the first visit, Mr Huxley was driving a blue Commodore. On the second visit, Hess asked Mr Huxley “what have you been up to?” and that Mr Huxley replied “the usual stuff” and then said “I done a hit on a bloke for $10,000”. Mr Huxley showed him “how he picked the rock up and dropped it on him and he said the fellow went wahhh – gone”. On the third visit Huxley told him the $10,000 had gone into his cousin’s account.
Hess’ evidence included a demonstration of the action that Mr Huxley showed him with the rock, describing that Mr Huxley “pretended to pick the rock up and dropped it”.
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Author adminPosted on Categories Defamation 2 Comments on Justice Michael Lee says ‘real credit issues’ in Lehrmann defamation trial
It’s the saga about an alleged rape that never ends.
After a jury in a criminal rape trial was aborted after juror misconduct, the subsequent inquiry which revealed prosecutorial misconduct and the resignation of the ACT Director of Prosecutions, we have the sequel to the rape trial.
That sequel is a civil defamation case by Bruce Lehrmann, who was the defendant in the rape trial, brought against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson for an episode on The Project about the alleged rape.
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Author adminPosted on Categories Criminal law 2 Comments on Daniel Keneally convicted of fabricating evidence
Daniel Keneally, the son of former NSW Labor premier Kristina Keneally, has been found guilty of fabricating evidence.
The worst thing a police officer can do in their job is to unlawfully kill another person. Besides that, fabricating evidence in order to have someone convicted of a serious offence and/or imprisoned would have to be among the worst things police officers can do.
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Author adminPosted on Categories Personal Injury Leave a comment on High Court sets aside stay of historical sexual abuse claim
In 1996, a Catholic priest named Father Anderson who had been incardinated in the Diocese of Lismore, died.
24 years later, the plaintiff, known as GLJ, filed a statement of claim in the Supreme Court of New South Wales against The Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the Diocese of Lismore on 31 January 2020.
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Author adminPosted on Categories Criminal law 2 Comments on Bruce Lehrmann named as accused in Toowoomba rape case
Former parliamentary staffer Bruce Lehrmann, who was accused of raping fellow staffer Brittany Higgins in Parliament House, has been identified as the high-profile man accused of rape in another case.
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Author adminPosted on Categories civil litigation, Judiciary, litigation 3 Comments on Judge Salvatore Vasta appeals false imprisonment decision
An appeal has been filed on behalf of Judge Salvatore Vasta following a ground-breaking decision which held him personally liable for false imprisonment of a man who appeared before him in a family law matter.
In August, Judge Vasta became the first Judge in Australian history to be successfully sued for a decision he made as a judge.
The suit arose from a decision of Vasta made on 6 December 2018, when he sentenced a self-represented man to a period of imprisonment of twelve (12) months.
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Author adminPosted on Categories Judiciary, Liberty 2 Comments on Judge Vasta successfully sued for false imprisonment
“Can I sue the judge?” is the question some lawyers might be asked by a fuming client, and which can be categorised as legal locker room talk. Such an idea is almost always keenly hosed down by the lawyer in response, as the client’s only recourse is to appeal, no matter how wrong the judge is or might have been.
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Author adminPosted on Categories Administrative law, Criminal law 1 Comment on Shane Drumgold SC seeks judicial review of Sofronoff findings
Outgoing ACT Director of Prosecutions Shane Drumgold SC, who resigned following damning findings made against him by Walter Sofronoff KC in an inquiry report, is now challenging those findings.
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Author adminPosted on Categories Criminal law, Legal profession, Liberty 4 Comments on Calls for more inquiries into prosecutorial conduct as Drumgold resigns
The resignation of Shane Drumgold SC as ACT Director of Prosecutions is to be welcomed. As ACT Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury noted while accepting Shane Drumgold’s resignation, Drumgold’s role as director of public prosecutions had become “no longer tenable”.
Drumgold will now likely be fighting to save his legal career. There’s also the possibility of criminal charges.
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