Police v DH [2014] NSWChC 3

Children's Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Police v DH [2014] NSWChC 3 Hearing dates: 29 May 2014 at Nowra ChCt Decision date: 05 June 2014 Jurisdiction: Criminal Before: Children's Magistrate Graham Blewitt AM Decision: Application to set aside the subpoena is dismissed Catchwords: CRIMINAL LAW - Young Persons - Subpoenas - Legitimate forensic purpose - use in cross-examination to attack credibility - use in cross-examination to show tendency to act unlawfully - subpoena too wide Legislation Cited: Police Act 1990, section 70 Evidence Act 1995, section 97 Cases Cited: Liristis v Gadelrabb [2009] NSWSC 44 Fried v National Australia Bank (2000) 175 ALR 194 Attorney General for NSW v Dylan Chidgey [2008] NSWCCA 65 Alistair v The Queen (1984) 154 CLR 404 Waind v Hill and National Employer's Mutual General Association Ltd [1978] 1NSWLR 372 R v Saleam (1999) 16 NSWLR 14 Category: Interlocutory applications Parties: Police Young Person Representation: Mr Chrysostomou, instructed by the Crown Solicitor's Office for the applicant Mr Boland, instructed by Mr A Robinson for the accused young person File Number(s): 2014/16623 Publication restriction: None

Judgment

Brief Background 1Around 9pm on Christmas Eve, 2013, the accused young person, aged 17, was with a male companion in a parked car at a park located beside the Shoalhaven River at North Nowra. It was dark and they were the only persons in the car park. 2Police (Sgt D and S/C B) were patrolling the area and had decided to carry out a check of the park due to prior intelligence involving illicit drug use in the park. 3The police saw the parked car and decided to investigate. I do not propose to go into detail about the events that followed, as this may become the subject of subsequent proceedings. For present purposes, it is sufficient to record that the accused young person and her companion were not involved in any wrongdoing in the vehicle. Words were exchanged between the police and the occupants of the vehicle, and this resulted in both the young person and her companion being searched and arrested. Nothing of an illegal nature was detected during the search of the persons or the vehicle. Both were taken back to the police station, and the young person was charged with the three charges currently before the Court, namely, assault police, hinder police and resist police. 4These charges attracted a plea of not guilty and are listed for hearing before the Nowra Children's Court in July 2014.