R v Warwick (No.35) [2018] NSWSC 1263

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Warwick (No.35) [2018] NSWSC 1263 Hearing dates: 9 August 2018 Date of orders: 09 August 2018 Decision date: 09 August 2018 Jurisdiction: Common Law - Criminal Before: Garling J Decision: (1) Decline to strike out the witness' answer. (2) Crown permitted to lead evidence on subject matters described in the course of submissions. Catchwords: EVIDENCE – criminal proceedings – witness evidence – examination in chief – defence objection to evidence given about accused's attitude to the Jehovah's Witness faith – evidence relevant – prejudice outweighed by probative value – evidence admissible and capable of carrying weight Legislation Cited: Evidence Act 1995 Cases Cited: IMM v The Queen [2016] HCA 14; (2016) 257 CLR 300 Texts Cited: Not Applicable Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: The Crown Leonard John Warwick (Accused) Representation: Counsel: K McKay / 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 Applicable

EX TEMPORE Judgment (T.1421) 1. The witness, Mark Christopher Gore, is presently giving evidence. Objection has been taken to an answer he has given and to further questions dealing with a similar subject matter. The Crown presses the evidence and the subject matter.

Background 1. Mr Gore was a member of C Platoon at the Liverpool Fire Station in 1985 at a time when the Accused was also stationed at the Liverpool Fire Station and was part of the same platoon. 2. The evidence is that the members of each platoon would be on duty at the fire station at the same time. It is the evidence of Mr Gore that from time to time, in the course of his work with the Accused, he would regularly see the Accused at the fire station and have discussions with him. 3. The oral evidence to date is that, at a time prior to July 1985, when a bomb exploded at the Kingdom Hall at Casula, Mr Gore noticed a change in the Accused and his attitude to him. His evidence is that he noticed that the Accused was becoming more antagonistic towards him and to his beliefs. Mr Gore was, at the time of the Kingdom Hall bombing, studying to become a member of the Jehovah's Witness faith, but had not yet been baptised into that faith. 4. The specific question and answer to which objection was taken is as follows: "Q. And what happened, or what did you observe that you say was a 'change'? A. Well, I would be talking to other firemen in the watch room or in the mess room and I would get a violent response from Len, as he walked in on us talking and he'd be critical of me, of my religion, when we weren't talking nothing about religion either, but he'd be straight into it and abuse me and the other party would end up walking out because he couldn't take the attitude and the violent abusive nature of Lenny as he came in."