R v Bechalany [2018] NSWSC 420

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Bechalany [2018] NSWSC 420 Hearing dates: 5 April 2018 Date of orders: 06 April 2018 Decision date: 06 April 2018 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Hidden AJ Decision: Trial by judge alone refused. Trial of first count to be separated from trial of the remaining counts. Catchwords: CRIMINAL LAW – application for trial by judge alone or separate trial of counts – indictment containing three counts – aggravated break and enter, murder, manslaughter – whether trial of aggravated break and enter with the other two counts impermissibly prejudicial to the accused – whether separate trials should be ordered or trial by judge alone Legislation Cited: Criminal Procedure Act 1986, s 132 Cases Cited: R v Belghar [2012] NSWCCA 86, (2012) 217 A Crim R 1 R v Villalon [2013] NSWSC 1516 Sutton v The Queen (1984) 152 CLR 528 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Regina Robert Bechalany Representation: Counsel: C Maxwell QC (Crown) R Pontello (Accused)

Solicitors: The Solicitor for the Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) (Crown) Kiri Kyriacou Lawyers (Accused) File Number(s): 2015/111895 Publication restriction: No

Judgment 1. HIDDEN AJ: The accused, Robert Jack Bechalany, is to face trial on an indictment charging him with aggravated break and enter and commit serious indictable offence (count 1), murder (count 2) and, in the alternative, manslaughter (count 3). Before me is an application by the accused for trial by judge alone or, alternatively, that the first count be tried separately from the trial of the second and third counts. 2. For the purpose of the application the parties were agreed that I should have regard to the Crown case statement which has been filed, and I received in evidence a recorded interview by police of Mr Peter Barbara, the alleged victim of the aggravated break and enter offence, and some CCTV footage of the incident giving rise to counts 2 and 3, to which I shall refer as the "homicide counts".