R v Warwick (No.45) [2018] NSWSC 1352

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Warwick (No.45) [2018] NSWSC 1352 Hearing dates: 23 August 2018 Date of orders: 23 August 2018 Decision date: 23 August 2018 Jurisdiction: Common Law - Criminal Before: Garling J Decision: Order that the evidence of Mr Sheather between pages 1607.6 and 1625.22 which was taken on the voir dire be admitted as evidence in the trial Catchwords: EVIDENCE – voir dire – evidence taken on voir dire to be admitted as evidence in the trial – judge alone trial – no point of principle Legislation Cited: Evidence Act 1995 Cases Cited: R v Warwick (No.37) [2019] NSWSC 196 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.2007) 1. Application is made by the Crown to tender in the trial the oral evidence of Mr Sheather, from transcript page 1607.6 to transcript page 1625.22. This evidence was originally taken on a voir dire and not as part of the evidence in the trial. 2. The subject matter of the oral evidence on the voir dire was the expertise of Mr Sheather to express opinions with respect to the crime scenes at which he attended relating to some, but not all, of the Events the subject of the Indictment. As well, his opinions addressed the nature of the explosive devices which had been activated at those scenes or, in the case of Event 6, had been discovered before it was activated. 3. At the conclusion of the voir dire, the Accused challenged the expertise of Mr Sheather in respect of giving opinion evidence about those matters. 4. On 14 August 2018, I ruled that Mr Sheather was qualified to give opinion evidence of the kind which the Crown intended to lead. The reason for that ruling are to be found in R v Warwick (No.37) [2019] NSWSC 196