R v Eliot (a pseudonym) (No. 3) [2022] NSWDC 701

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Eliot (a pseudonym) (No. 3) [2022] NSWDC 701 Hearing dates: 4 March 2022 Date of orders: 4 March 2022 Decision date: 04 March 2022 Jurisdiction: Criminal Before: Grant DCJ Decision: Venue changed Catchwords: Change of venue on Courts motion, Crown opposition, defence facilitating the course of justice, Crown "flood gate" argument rejected, Crown "locality" argument rejected, risk of unfair trial if venue not changed due to publicity and nature of the crime alleged, conspiracy to murder, interests of young person, Section 30 of the Criminal Procedure Act, justice delayed is justice denied Legislation Cited: Criminal Procedure Act 1986 Cases Cited: R v Whatman [2020] NSWDC 562 Category: Procedural rulings Parties: Regina (Crown) Thomas Eliot (a pseudonym) (Accused) Representation: Counsel: Mr P Kerr (Crown) Ms C Mendes (Accused) File Number(s): 2020/00232780 Publication restriction: Pursuant to section 7 of the Court Suppression and Non-Publication Orders Act 2010, there be no publication, except for the proper conduct of these proceedings, of: a. The city in which the school is located and any information that would tend to identify the city; b. The name of the school and any information that would tend to identify the school;

Pursuant to s15A Children (Criminal Proceedings) Act 1987, there is to be no publication of any information, picture or other material that identifies or is likely to lead to the identification of a child. Identifying information has been removed from this judgment to comply with the statute. Pseudonyms have been used for the names of the accused and other children.