R v Abdallah (No. 2) [2014] NSWSC 111

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Abdallah (No. 2) [2014] NSWSC 111 Hearing dates: 17 February 2014 Decision date: 17 February 2014 Jurisdiction: Common Law - Criminal Before: Campbell J Decision: (1)Matthew Edward Lewis, I charge you with being in contempt of the Supreme Court of New South Wales arising out of your wilful refusal to answer questions asked of you in the present proceedings when required to do so. I remand you in custody on a date to be fixed at the conclusion of this trial and I refuse bail. (2)I will make the order as sought by the Crown under section 7 of the Court Suppression and Nonpublication Orders Act 2010. I order that the proceedings before me today, so far as they concern Mr Matthew Edward Lewis, may not be published by any person on the ground that a nonpublication order is necessary to prevent prejudice to the proper administration of justice in that the jury panel who will assemble here on Wednesday, ought not to be exposed to the events of today, lest it interfere with their proper discharge of the duty of those of them empanelled to form a jury in the discharge of their obligations according to law. (3)That order inures until further order of the court and will dissolve upon the taking of the jury's verdict in the trial of the accused. Catchwords: CRIMINAL LAW - trial - contempt of court - refusal by witness to give evidence Cases Cited: Coward v Stapleton (1953) 90 CLR 573 Category: Separate question Parties: Regina Tarek Abdallah (Accused) Representation: Counsel: P Leask (Crown) D Dalton SC (Accused) B Clark (for witnesses Matthew Lewis and John Leger) Solicitors: Solicitor for Public Prosecutions (Crown) AHA Taylor (Accused) File Number(s): 2012/00008057