R v Warwick (No.24) [2018] NSWSC 691

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Warwick (No.24) [2018] NSWSC 691 Hearing dates: 15 May 2018 Date of orders: 15 May 2018 Decision date: 15 May 2018 Jurisdiction: Common Law - Criminal Before: Garling J Decision: Admit Family Court of Australia file provisionally as Exh 1 in these proceedings Catchwords: EVIDENCE – provisional relevance – Evidence Act 1995 – issue of authentication to be determined at a later stage – file admitted as an exhibit Legislation Cited: Evidence Act 1995 Cases Cited: Not Applicable Texts Cited: Not Applicable Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: The Crown Leonard John Warwick (Accused) Representation: Counsel: G Christofi (Crown) A R Conolly / E Ramsay (Accused)

Solicitors: Director of Public Prosecutions (Crown) A R Conolly & Co (Accused) File Number(s): 2015/222068 Publication restriction: Not to be published until further order of the Court. Non publication order lifted on 14 February 2020.

EX TEMPORE Judgment 1. The Crown seeks to tender the file of the Family Court of Australia, which is a record of the Family Court proceedings between the Accused and Ms Blanchard. 2. The documents constituting that file were produced to this Court in the course of pre-trial hearings by virtue of a request made by the Principal Registrar of this Court to the Family Court of Australia at Parramatta. 3. The Accused opposes the tender of the file at this stage and opposes it being marked as an exhibit before it is authenticated in evidence by the relevant officer of the Family Court of Australia. The Accused indicates that that may not be necessary after further consultation between his lawyer, Mr Conolly, and the Crown. 4. It seems to me that the appropriate course where formal authentication remains in issue, but where the file is plainly relevant to the Crown case, is to admit the file under s 57 of the Evidence Act 1995 provisionally and mark it as Exhibit 1. It will be necessary to return, in due course, to finalise the question of whether it should be admitted finally. I will mark the Family Court of Australia file with respect to the proceedings between Ms Andrea Blanchard and the Accused as Exhibit 1.