R v Ryan [2024] NSWDC 274

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Ryan [2024] NSWDC 274 Hearing dates: 2/7/24, 3/7/24, 4/7/24, 8/7/24 Date of orders: 8/7/24 Decision date: 08 July 2024 Jurisdiction: Criminal Before: Bourke SC DCJ Decision: Verdict of Guilty. Catchwords: Crime – Judge alone trial – Verdict – Fail to comply with reporting obligations Legislation Cited: Child Protection (Offenders Registration) Act 2000 Cases Cited: O'Neill v Commissioner of Police [2020] NSWSC 1805 Category: Principal judgment Parties: NSW DPP – Crown Robert Ryan - Accused Representation: Mr T Buckingham for Crown Ms B Kennedy for Accused File Number(s): 22/328682 Publication restriction: Statutory non-publication of the identity of the complainant. The names of the complainant and her mother have been anonymised.

Judgment on verdict 1. In referring to the children and their mother in these reasons, I will use pseudonyms, and not their real names, so as to avoid the risk of the children being identified. I will refer to the mother of the children as "Ms Twigg". I will refer to the older of the two children as "Donna" and to the younger child as "Rachel".

The charge, and the nature of this trial 1. The Accused is charged on indictment with a single count in the following terms… "Between 1 April 2022 and 2 November 2022, at Liverpool in the State of NSW, did without reasonable excuse fail to comply with his reporting obligations as a registrable person under the Child Protection (Offenders Registration) Act 2000 (NSW)." 1. His trial proceeded by Judge alone, pursuant to orders made by Hanley SC DCJ. 2. In this judgment I record my verdict, and reasons for reaching that verdict. 3. In reaching my verdict, I must take into account any warning, direction or comment which by law would be required to be given or made to a jury.