R v AA, AS, MH & OM [2009] NSWDC 40

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v AA, AS, MH & OM [2009] NSWDC 40

HEARING DATE(S): 27/2/2009

JUDGMENT DATE: 27 February 2009

JURISDICTION: Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Cogswell SC DCJ

DECISION: Application to exclude the media from the court under s10(1)(b) of the Children (Criminal Proceedings) Act 1987 is granted

CATCHWORDS: Criminal law - Sentence - Juvenile offenders - Aggravated sexual intercourse with a child between 10 and 14 years - Alleged identification of offenders by the media - Application to exclude the media from the court - Protection of children - Public interest in court proceedings

LEGISLATION CITED: Children (Criminal Proceedings) Act 1987 Evidence Act 1995

PARTIES: Regina AS, AS, MH & OM

FILE NUMBER(S): 2008/10599; 2008/10600; 2008/10601; 2008/10602

Mr P Thompson for the NSW DPP Ms J Gallagher for OM COUNSEL: Ms P David for MH Mr L Brasch for AA Ms D Maher for AS

JUDGMENT

1 A week ago on 20 February 2009 I made an order under s 10(1)(b) of the Children (Criminal Proceedings) Act 1987 directing the exclusion from court in these proceedings of all persons who are engaged in preparing reports on the proceedings for the dissemination through the public news media. I made that order for reasons which I delivered at the time and which are now published under R v AA, AS, MH, and OM [2009] NSWDC 25.

2 Today Mr Sibtain of counsel sought leave to appear for his clients, the Seven Network Operations, Nine Network and Nationwide News. I granted him leave.

3 His application, after having been granted that leave was, in effect, for the media to be permitted to remain in court. He was re-agitating the application made last week for the exclusion of the media under s 10(1)(b). I regarded the re-agitation of that issue as appropriate because the media were not represented by counsel last week. I do not propose to repeat the matters which are set out in my judgment delivered last week.