Ex parte NSW Police Service; Re: Listening Devices Act 1984 - Application No. ST03/173 [2003] NSWSC 573

Reported Decision : 140 A Crim R 415

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : Ex parte NSW Police Service; Re: Listening Devices Act 1984 - Application No. ST03/173 [2003] NSWSC 573 HEARING DATE(S) : 2/6/03, 5/6/03 JUDGMENT DATE : 19 June 2003

JUDGMENT OF : O'Keefe J DECISION : Warrant for a listening device, pursuant to the provisions of the Listening Devices Act 1984, refused.

CATCHWORDS : Criminal law - Practice and procedure - Listening device - Warrants - Indicia for grant - Meaning of nature of prescribed offence - Privacy - consideration extends beyond suspect - Alternative means of obtaining evidence - Evidentiary value of evidence - Grant of warrants discretionary - Policy of Listening Devices Act LEGISLATION CITED : Evidence Act 1995 - ss 135, 137 Listening Devices Act 1984 - ss 5, 13, 16 Julius v Lord Bishop of Oxford (1880) 5 App. Cas. 214 CASES CITED : O'Hare v DPP [2000] NSWSC 430 at paras 8-13); Reynolds v Whittens [2002] NSWSC 135 Ward v Williams (1954-1955) 92 CLR 496 PARTIES : New South Wales Police Service FILE NUMBER(S) : SC ST03/173 COUNSEL : Mr W Kelly - New South Wales Police Service Mr John Patterson (Special Advice Unit, Legal Services) - New South Wales Police Service SOLICITORS : Solicitor for the New South Wales Police Service

- 9 - IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COMMON LAW DIVISION

O'Keefe J (In Chambers)

19 June 2003

Ex parte NSW Police Service; Re: Listening Devices Act 1984 - Application No. ST03/173

JUDGMENT

1 Application has been made on behalf of a constable of police (the applicant) stationed at a Sydney metropolitan police station for a warrant for a listening device pursuant to the provisions of the Listening Devices Act 1984, (The Act). It is proposed that should the warrant be granted the listening device that it authorises would be held close to the handset of a telephone that would be used by two complainants at the relevant police station in order to listen to and record conversations between them on the one hand, and a named person (the suspect) on the other, as well as other unnamed persons. The conversations would be so crafted as to endeavour to elicit admissions from the suspect. 2 The application relates to offences of indecent assault alleged to have been committed between 1973 and 1975 respectively, ie, between twenty eight and thirty years ago. 3 The complainants are sisters. One was born on 15 January 1960; the other on 20 March 1963. They have an older sister. She is married to the suspect, who was born on 16 March 1949. Although the precise date of the marriage between the complainants' older sister and the suspect is not revealed in the material in support of the application, it is clear from it that the older sister and the suspect were married in 1972. 4 The offences are alleged to have occurred in the family home, commencing in 1973. In relation to one of the complainants, they consisted of nocturnal intimate touching on some five separate occasions, one of which involved digital penetration. They are thus serious offences. 5 In relation to the other complainant, the venue is the same but the complaint relates to a single offence in 1975. It is alleged to have involved manual touching of the breasts of the complainant at a time when the suspect was said to have been experiencing an erection. Although the circumstances and incidents of the offence deposed to are by no means in the same category of seriousness as those relating to the first complainant, the complainant was only 12 at the time. 6 From the application and evidence in support it is apparent that there was no contact between the first complainant and the suspect between about Christmas 1975 and the latter half of 1998, except on some occasions at Christmas time when the extended family would meet "somewhere". On all such occasions it is said that the suspect "would stay away from" the complainants. There is no indication as to when the last contact between the second complainant and the suspect occurred, although I infer from the initial affidavit relied on in the matter that it was probably not significantly different from that which occurred between the first complainant and the suspect. 7 In the mid to third quarter of 1998 it is said that the second complainant initiated a telephone conversation with the suspect ie. she telephoned him. From the affidavit in support of the application, it emerges that she had a short, curious, non-incriminating conversation with him. There is also evidence that in August 2002, the parents of the complainants received a typed letter signed with a common abbreviation of the first name of the suspect. The correspondence includes two sentences that could be regarded as incriminating. There is further evidence that the first complainant received a typed letter in May 2003. It was signed in the same way as the first letter and its terms were not dissimilar to those contained in it. 8 There being nothing in the evidence to indicate that the signatory of either of the letters is in fact the suspect, and it not being established that any endeavour had been made to correlate the signature on the letters with the handwriting of the suspect, I adjourned the application to enable the applicant to present additional evidence. This was done. It consisted of an affidavit by the applicant for the warrant. 9 In his supplementary affidavit the applicant deposes to the fact that the letter received by the parents of the complainants was typed. Whether the signature was also in type script is not clear. However, the addressed envelopes were handwritten. The applicant states that the handwriting, "can't (be) positively identified" as belonging to the suspect. The evidence as to the inability to identify positively the handwriting on the envelopes as belonging to the suspect was obtained from lay people whom one would expect to be conversant with the handwriting of the suspect. However the handwriting has not been submitted for analysis by an expert. 10 In his supplementary affidavit the applicant indicates there has been one previous application made in respect of the prescribed offences. The outcome of that, i.e. whether it was granted, whether the device was used and if it was, what was ascertained, is not revealed. It may even be that the previous application referred to is that made to me, but adjourned. 11 The applicant states in his supplementary affidavit that "there are no alternative means of inquiry" available in respect of the matter. On the face of the affidavits this is not correct. It is quite clear that handwriting analysis could provide evidence linking the letters to which I have referred to the suspect, if he be their author. That has not been done. 12 In addition, it is clear that there could well be an invasion of the privacy of a person or persons who is/are not the subject of any suspicion or likely to be the subject of any charge. This results from the application seeking a warrant that would record the conversations of persons other than the suspect who are unnamed. 13 The Act is structured so as to commence with a provision prohibiting the use of listening devices. That is the effect of section 5(1) of the Act. That primary prohibition is subject to a series of exceptions, one of which is the use of a listening device pursuant to a warrant issued under Part 4 of the Act (s 5(2)(a)). Part 3 of the Act renders inadmissible evidence of private conversations when unlawfully obtained, whether such evidence be direct or indirect in form. This reinforces what in my view is a fundamental principle of the Act, namely, that the use of electronic devices to record private conversations is the exception, not the norm. It recognises as a primary concern the right to integrity of conversations and oral discourse between citizens. 14 Part 4 of the Act empowers the court to grant a warrant where an application is made by a person who "suspects or believes" that a prescribed offence has been, or is about to be or is likely to be committed, and that for the purpose of an investigation into that offence or of enabling evidence to be obtained of the commission of the offence or the identity of the offender, to authorise the use of a listening device. However, that depends upon the applicant for the warrant believing that, "the use of a listening device is necessary" (italics added). 15 The grant of a warrant is discretionary. The court "may" do so. The word "may" is not used in a mandatory sense (eg. Ward v Williams (1954-1955) 92 CLR 496 at 504-506; Julius v Lord Bishop of Oxford (1880) 5 App. Cas. 214 at 224, 240; see authorities referred to in O'Hare v DPP [2000] NSWSC 430 at paras 8-13); Reynolds v Whittens [2002] NSWSC 135 at paras 29-34). 16 Before the court grants a warrant it must be satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for the suspicion or belief held by the applicant. The belief to which this requirement refers includes the belief that the use of a listening device is necessary (s16(1)(b)), not merely that a prescribed offence has been, is about to be, or is likely to be committed (s 16(1)(a)). 17 Part 4 also prescribes certain indicia to which the court is required to have regard in determining whether to grant a warrant. They are: (a) The nature of the prescribed offence in respect of which the warrant is sought.