R v Brewer (No 1) [2015] NSWSC 1471

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Brewer (No 1) [2015] NSWSC 1471 Hearing dates: 6 October 2015 Date of orders: 06 October 2015 Decision date: 06 October 2015 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Bellew J Decision: See [17] and [19] Catchwords: CRIMINAL LAW – Practice and procedure – Application by media outlets for access to CCTV footage tendered by the Crown – Accused charged with murder – Trial before judge alone - Where Crown adduced evidence of CCTV footage of altercation between the deceased and the accused – Where CCTV footage depicted the last moments of the life of the deceased – Where Crown also adduced CCTV footage of the arrest of the accused in which the accused made disparaging comments about the deceased –– Where publication of the footage would be likely to cause further grief to the deceased's family – Application for access denied – Where accused asserted that he was "embarrassed" by the statements made by him at the time of his arrest – Where that position was outweighed by principles of open justice – Application for access to that part of the footage granted. Legislation Cited: Criminal Procedure Act 1986 Cases Cited: R v Abdallah (No 3) [2015] NSWSC 121 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Crown - Regina Adam James Brewer - Accused Representation: Counsel: Crown – Mr M Barr Accused – Mr P Skinner

Solicitors: Crown - Solicitor for Public Prosecutions Accused - Longton Legal File Number(s): 2014/77670 Publication restriction: Nil