Justice for all, in eight minutes
11.06.2008
THE average Cape York court case lasts barely eight minutes, according to a damning review of the region's justice system that could result in hundreds of cases being appealed.
The review was ordered by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh in December last year after revelations in The Australian that Cairns District Court judge Sarah Bradley had failed to jail nine males who gang-raped a 10-year-old girl at the Cape York community of Aurukun.
The review was completed in February by Peter Davis SC, who, in preliminary comments obtained by The Australian, has described the case of the ``Aurukun Nine'' as ``a disaster''. The Queensland Court of Appeal is in the next two weeks expected to hand down its decision on an appeal against the Aurukun Nine's sentences by Attorney-General Kerry Shine.
Mr Davis's full report is due to be released after this, but in his preliminary comments he says the system of sending judges to communities across Cape York to hear cases was not working. He recommends that unless there are drastic changes, the system should be abolished and all cases heard in Cairns.
Mr Davis says the heavy workloads of travelling judges, who often must churn through hundreds of charges in a matter of days, ``cannot produce quality results over a long period, no matter how able the magistrates are''.
Mr Davis is particularly caustic in his observations about sentencing procedures and a ``culture'' that has apparently developed where prosecutors and defence counsel decide an appropriate sentence and the judge simply agrees with it.
``That frankly is what happened in the Aurukun Nine case,'' he says. ``The Crown submitted for non-custodial sentences. The judge initially resisted that, knowing, I think, that there were severe difficulties with the submission involving no actual custody for nine people who raped a 10-year-old.
``Then, though, the defence (obviously) agree with the Crown submission and the judge goes along with it.''
In many communities on the Cape, a community justice group has been established. Mr Davis is strongly critical of the practice of some judges in
meeting these groups before hearing individual cases.
``Unfortunately it is completely and totally inappropriate,'' he writes.
``I have heard that the judge does not talk about the cases in these meetings but what (do they) talk about?
``I understand that is the general state of the community etc. All of those things can, one way or another, impact upon aspects of sentencing. Deterrence, for instance.
``In my view, if the judge meets with the community justice group prior to the sentencing proceedings, that meeting is liable to render every sentence on the circuit potentially appellable.
``The judge's contact with community justice groups outside court has to be discouraged. It is inappropriate for there to be an approach to the judge to raise this problem other than in open court.''
Mr Davis writes that while it isan admirable objective to ``take justice to the Cape communities'', there is no point if the end result is ``poorly done sentences''.
He gave examples of the judges' workloads when visiting communities on the Cape.
At Coen, 168 charges involving 129 adults were disposed of in six days, while at Kowanyama, 857 charges involving 708 adults and 39 involving 29 juveniles were handled in 18 days of sittings.
``If a magistrate is sitting a five-hour day, that equates to seven matters an hour or one every 8.5 minutes,'' Mr Davis writes. ``That level of work cannot produce quality results over a long period, no matter how able the magistrates are, and these days they are, with respect, usually very good.''
Mr Davis says that if the circuits cannot be improved, they should be abolished, with all cases heard in Cairns.
``The way the circuits are being run, the only surprising factor about the Aurukun Nine case is that there haven't been similar disasters before,'' he says. ``In saying this, I'm not prejudging the Court of Appeal's judgment on the adequacy of sentences.''
He suggests the Attorney-General look at the number of wounding offences before the District Court and consider legislation allowing those cases to be dealt with by a magistrate.
