R v Geoffrey William LEONARD (No 2) [2008] NSWDC 197

Reported Decision : 7 DCLR (NSW) 278

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Geoffrey William LEONARD (No 2) [2008] NSWDC 197

HEARING DATE(S): 1 September 2008 - 4 September 2008

JUDGMENT DATE: 4 September 2008

JURISDICTION: Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: Jury to deliver the verdict

CATCHWORDS: CRIMINAL LAW - Taking verdict where accused has not voluntarily absented himself - Accused not present at return of verdict because of illness - Self represented accused - Importance of integrity of verdict

LEGISLATION CITED: Jury Act 1977

R v McHardie and Danielson [1988] 2 NSWLR 733 CASES CITED: R v Cornwell [1972] 2 NSWLR 1 The Queen v Thomas CASTRO (1879) 5 Q.B. 490 R v Mokbel [2006] VSC 520

PARTIES: The Crown Geoffrey William Leonard

FILE NUMBER(S): DC 2006/11/0746

COUNSEL: L McManus (the Crown)

SOLICITORS: Commonwealth DPP Self Represented

JUDGMENT

1 The jury in this matter had been deliberating for some time, when they told the court officer that they had reached a verdict. The officer then told me. I asked for the court to be assembled. However within a very short time, indeed less than a minute, of me learning that the jury had reached a verdict I was also informed that Mr Leonard, the accused, had been taken unwell. Mr Leonard is appearing for himself at his trial.

2 At the conclusion of yesterday's proceedings I remanded him in custody. He was therefore in the custody of corrective service officers this morning at the time it was reported to me he had been taken ill. It now transpires that Mr Leonard has been taken away to hospital in an ambulance. Information I received suggested that Mr Leonard was not feigning any illness but, on the assessment of the ambulance officers, appeared to be genuinely and significantly unwell. I do know from earlier proceedings in which Mr Leonard has appeared in front of me that he has, in the past, suffered a heart attack. He is seventy-four years of age. One of the matters he was going to rely on when I was to sentence him for matters (not the subject of the jury trial, of course) was his poor health.