R v JS [2010] NSWDC 107

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v JS [2010] NSWDC 107

HEARING DATE(S): 7 June 2010- 9 June 2010 EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE : 9 June 2010

JURISDICTION: District Court Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: Certificate granted

CATCHWORDS: CRIMINAL LAW - Judgment - Costs application

LEGISLATION CITED: Costs in Criminal Cases Act

CASES CITED: R v Manley 49 NSWLR 203 at 14

PARTIES: The Crown JS

FILE NUMBER(S): DC 2009/00213885

COUNSEL: P Rosser QC - Accused

SOLICITORS: Director of Public Prosecutions Greg Murray Law - Accused

JUDGMENT

1 HIS HONOUR: Many innocent people face trial for serious charges and are acquitted. The default position, if I can call it that, is that such people do not have costs awarded in their favour. Society accepts that innocent people will often have to pay the costs of a criminal trial, even one in which they are found not guilty. That is the price to pay for living in a society where disputes regarding credible allegations of wrongdoing are resolved by the courts rather than by the prosecutor. They are resolved in public rather than in private.

2 Of course, this is not a universal rule. There are situations where the law requires that costs are awarded in favour of a successful former accused. One of those situations is governed by the Costs in Criminal Cases Act, the Act under which the present application is brought.

3 On Monday, the then accused, JS, pleaded not guilty to an indictment containing six counts. They all allege that he had done some sexual activity with a named complainant without her consent, knowing that she was not consenting. The first witness in the prosecution case was the complainant. There were many problems in her credibility revealed in the course of her evidence, and I will deal with them later. Those problems continued when other evidence was called in the Crown case, to the extent that at the close of the Crown case I gave the jury a Prasad direction. They considered that matter over lunch and returned with verdicts of not guilty on each of the six counts.