R v McCloskey (No 3) [2020] NSWSC 914

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v McCloskey (No 3) [2020] NSWSC 914 Hearing dates: 29 June – 3 July 2020; 6 -7 July 2020; 10 & 13 July 2020 Date of orders: 20 July 2020 Decision date: 20 July 2020 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Davies J Decision: The accused is not guilty of the murder of John Salafia. The accused is guilty of being an accessory after the fact to the murder of John Salafia. Catchwords: CRIME - murder - trial by judge alone - where accused pleads guilty to being an accessory after the fact to the murder - where deceased was attended upon by a group and shot five times in his doorway - where murder part of an arrangement to confront deceased - where accused admitted to having driven assailants to and from the deceased's property - where Crown case principally relied on admissions made by the accused to a witness - where witness obtained further admissions after wearing a listening device - where accused claims he was intimidated by witness and made admissions to ward off the witness – where accused had fabricated claims of having been involved in other murders - where tendency evidence admitted to suggest involvement of another person - where sufficient doubt raised as to the truthfulness of the admissions - where accused found not guilty Legislation Cited: Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) s 23 Criminal Appeal Act 1912 (NSW) s 5F Criminal Procedure Act 1986 (NSW) s 133 Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) ss 38, 97, 101, 165, 191 Cases Cited: Hamalainen v R [2019] NSWCCA 276 IMM v The Queen (2016) 257 CLR 300; [2016] HCA 14 R v McCloskey (No 2) [2020] NSWSC 786 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Crown Robert John Stewart McCloskey (Accused) Representation: Counsel: S Hughes (Crown) D McMahon (Accused)