Mirror Newspapers Ltd v Harrison [1982] HCA 50

High Court of Australia Gibbs C.J. Mason, Aickin, Wilson and Brennan JJ. Mirror Newspapers Ltd v Harrison [1982] HCA 50

ORDER Appeal allowed with costs. Order of the Supreme Court of New South Wales (Court of Appeal) set aside and in lieu thereof order that the appeal to that court be dismissed with costs.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

Sept. 14 Gibbs C.J.

I have had the advantage of reading the reasons for judgment prepared by my brother Mason, and, subject to the reservation which I am about to express, I am in agreement with them.

It is not necessary, for the purpose of the present case, to decide whether a statement that a person has been arrested and charged with an offence is capable of bearing the imputation that the police officer who made the arrest and laid the charge had reasonable cause to suspect the person charged of having committed the offence. No doubt the statement would convey to an ordinary reasonable man that the police suspected that the person arrested had committed the offence. However, although an ordinary man might think that the police officer laying the charge ought to have had reasonable cause for his suspicion, it does not necessarily follow that he would read into the words the imputation that the police officer did in truth have such reasonable cause; for example, a police officer might, in the ordinary course of events, have proceeded on a mistaken view of the facts. I am not at present satisfied that a statement of this kind would carry the further imputation that the suspicion of the informant that the person charged had committed the offence was based on reasonable grounds and I would leave that question open until it falls for decision.

I would allow the appeal and restore the order of Hunt J.