R v Kathleen Sharp [2003] NSWSC 1117

Reported Decision : 143 A Crim R 344

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : R v Kathleen Sharp [2003] NSWSC 1117 HEARING DATE(S) : 17/11/03, 18/11/03, 20/11/03, 21/22/03, 24/11/03, 25/11/03, 26/11/03, 27/11/03, 28/11/03 JUDGMENT DATE : 3 December 2003 JURISDICTION: Criminal Division JUDGMENT OF : Howie J at 1 DECISION : Evidence admitted in part.

CATCHWORDS : Evidence - Admissibility of evidence - unrecorded conversation - whether official questioning - whether reasonable excuse for not recording - client legal privilige - where conversation between accused and solicitor overheard by police - whether conversation was confidential communication Criminal Procedure Act 1986- s 281 LEGISLATION CITED : Crimes Act 1900- Pt 10A Evidence Act 1995- s139, s 138(1), s 118, s 117 Moussa (2001) 125 A Crim R 505 CASES CITED : R v Braham and Mason [1976] VR 547 Re Griffin (1887) 8 LR (NSW) 132 PARTIES : Regina v Kathleen Sharp FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 70022/03 COUNSEL : Crown: B. C. Newport, QC Accused: A. M. Webb SOLICITORS : Crown: S.E. O'Connor Accused: Lamrock's Solicitors

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES CRIMINAL DIVISION

HOWIE J

Wednesday 3 DECEMBER 2003

70022/03 R v Kathleen SHARP

Admissibility of evidence. 1 HIS HONOUR: The accused stands trial before a jury on a charge of accessory after the fact to murder and, in the alternative, accessory after the fact to manslaughter. Objection was taken to conversations alleged by the Crown to have taken place between the accused and investigating police and which, on the Crown case, contain admissions of her knowledge of the circumstances in which the deceased met his death at the hands of her co-accused, Bradleigh Walsh. 2 I have rejected some evidence arising from those conversations but I have also ruled that some part of one conversation be admitted into evidence. These are the reasons for those rulings. 3 There is no dispute at the trial that Walsh killed the deceased in the flat where the accused and Walsh lived. They were in a close personal relationship at the time. The Crown case is that after Walsh killed the deceased, the accused assisted him to dispose of the body and to remove evidence of the killing from the flat. On arraignment Walsh pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the basis of excessive self-defence, but the Crown rejected that plea as discharging the indictment for murder. The alternative verdicts against the accused are on the basis that the Crown alleges she was aware of the circumstances in which the deceased was killed by Walsh and, depending upon what the jury determine as to his criminal liability for that killing, so they will find the accused guilty of one of the alternative charges. 4 Police became aware of the killing after the deceased's severed head and two arms were found in the Hawkesbury River. Police learned that the deceased had been staying with the accused and Walsh at a flat in Penrith shortly before his remains were found. They also learned of an account of the disappearance of the deceased given by the accused to her employer.