State of New South Wales v Holt (No 8) [2023] NSWSC 1363

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: State of New South Wales v Holt (No 8) [2023] NSWSC 1363 Hearing dates: 5, 6, 28 July, 7, 11, 17 August 2023 Date of orders: 27 October 2023 Decision date: 10 November 2023 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Campbell J Decision: See [118]-[119] Catchwords: HIGH RISK OFFENDERS — Terrorism (High Risk Offenders) Act 2017 (NSW) — whether applicant poses an unacceptable risk of committing a serious terrorism offence if not kept in detention under a continuing detention — no dispute regarding alternative of an extended supervision order — risks posed are unacceptable if he is not supervised under an extended supervision order rather than a continuing detention order — not persuaded that anything beyond containment is to be gained from a CDO — consideration of conditions HIGH RISK OFFENDERS — applicant associates with Aryan Terror Brigade, white supremacist and Nazism ideologies — adoption of Germanic persona — searches HIGH RISK OFFENDERS — index offending — manufacturing of homemade slam fire guns — possession of illegal weapons — child abuse material offending — grooming — soliciting child pornography HIGH RISK OFFENDERS — consideration of VERA-2R — consideration of Corner Report — experts did not apply VERA-2R as a predictive tool but as an aid to their clinical assessment — not satisfied that the Corner Report debunks VERA-2R on the evidence in this matter Legislation Cited: Terrorism (High Risk Offenders) Act 2017 (NSW) ss 20, 29, 34, 37, 39, 42, 59A, 59C Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) Cases Cited: Browne v Dunn (1893) 6 R 67 Jones v Dunkel (1959) 101 CLR 298; [1959] HCA 8 State of New South Wales v Holt (Preliminary) [2021] NSWSC 1076 State of New South Wales v Holt [2022] NSWSC 1684 State of New South Wales v Holt (No 2) [2023] NSWSC 1365 State of New South Wales v Holt (No 3) [2023] NSWSC 683 State of New South Wales v Holt (No 4) [2023] NSWSC 861 State of New South Wales v Holt (No 5) [2023] NSWSC 1361 State of New South Wales v Holt (No 6) [2023] NSWSC 1367 State of New South Wales v Holt (No 7) [2023] NSWSC 994 Texts Cited: E Corner and H Taylor, Testing the Reliability, Validity, and Equity of Terrorism Risk Assessment Instruments (ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods, 2022) Category: Principal judgment Parties: State of New South Wales (Plaintiff) Michael James Holt (Defendant) Representation: Counsel: P McDonald SC with K Curry (Plaintiff) P Coady (Defendant)