Key updates include:

Sentencing – Principles of sentencing – Four seminal sentencing cases

Justice Beech-Jones cited the following four sentencing cases as being fundamental:
•    Veen v The Queen (No 2) (1988) 164 CLR 465; 33 A Crim R 230; [1988] HCA 14 (objective seriousness and proportionality principle); 
•    Markarian v The Queen (2005) 228 CLR 357; 79 ALJR 1048; [2005] HCA 25 (“instinctive synthesis, no mathematical deductions but equally not a soup”); 
•    Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) v De La Rosa (2010) 79 NSWLR 1; 205 A Crim R 1; [2010] NSWCCA 195 (consideration of mental illness and intellectual impairment); and
•    Bugmy v Queen (2013) 249 CLR 571; 229 A Crim R 337; [2013] HCA 37 (moral culpability, deprived background, protection of the community). 
See [24.40].

Bail – Bail and Commonwealth offences

In R v Weatherall [2023] NSWSC 710, the applicant for bail had been charged with offences relevant to the bail restrictions in s 15AAA of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth), namely using a carriage service to engage in sexual activity. Justice Weinstein assessed which parts of the Bail Act 2013 (NSW) had been displaced by s 15AAA of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth), and which parts remained relevant when considering a bail application where s 15AAA applied. See [3.75].

Charging – Remedies – Damages for tortious charging and prosecution

The man who was a suspect in the William Tyrrell case had his damages award for malicious prosecution in relation to an unrelated case upheld in the Court of Appeal. Police pressed on with a charge in the hope of turning up evidence relating to William Tyrrell’s disappearance: New South Wales v Spedding [2023] NSWCA 180. See [2.850].

Hearings – conduct of defence – Representation and withdrawal from representation – Statutory and common law limits on the right to appear for an accused

The Commonwealth Attorney General’s power over who can represent accused in security trials was reviewed when Brett Walker QC sought to represent ACT solicitor Bernard Collaery: Collaery v The Queen [2021] ACTCA 1 at [27]. See [19.210].

Hearings – jury and verdicts – Representation and withdrawal from representation – Statutory and common law limits on the right to appear for an accused

In Director of Public Prosecutions (ACT) v Lehrman (No 5) [2022] ACTSC 296, McCallum CJ set out the reasons for the discharge of the whole jury in the Lehrman trial after a juror brought an academic article about sexual assault trials into the jury room. See [23.490].

Hearings – conduct of prosecution – Duty of disclosure – Indemnified and informant witnesses

For the consequences of the non-disclosure that the defence lawyer Nicole Gobbo had become a police informer, see AB (a Pseudonym) v CD (a Pseudonym) (2018) 93 ALJR 59; (2019) 362 ALR 1; [2018] HCA 58 and ss 77RD–77RK of the Judiciary Act 1903 (Cth). See [20.350].

A detailed summary of this release is available at [S23.30].

Criminal Procedure (NSW) provides in-depth practical and procedural knowledge on how to approach your criminal case in New South Wales, from the moment of arrest to appealing a sentence decision (including remedies if no conviction results). Topics discussed in the service are: arrest, charging, bail, detention and questioning, search warrants, telephone interception and surveillance devices, pre- and post-arrest directions and searches, identification material, taking and using body samples, body cavity searches, mentally ill / intellectually disabled persons, summary procedure, committal procedure, pre-hearing procedure, hearings (conduct of defence / conduct of prosecution / witnesses / role of judges and magistrates / jury and verdicts), sentencing and appeals.

The Criminal Law Practice Area on Westlaw has many services that are designed to complement each other to provide the breadth of coverage of a single compendium but with the in-depth analysis that specific focus areas will allow. In addition, the Alert and the reports series will also enable practitioners to keep up to date with pertinent caselaw. When taken in its entirety, the Criminal Law Practice Area will furnish subscribers with a full picture of Criminal Law in the respective jurisdictions without the necessary restrictions of single services. The Criminal Law Noticeboard is specifically geared for specialists in the area and will deliver news items of interest and significance written and curated by in-house editors. To subscribe to the Criminal Law Practice Area on Westlaw, contact Thomson Reuters.