R v Meakin [2019] NSWSC 1311

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Meakin [2019] NSWSC 1311 Hearing dates: 5-9, 13-15,19, 23, 26-30 August 20192, 3, 5, 9-12 September 2019 Date of orders: 30 September 2019 Decision date: 30 September 2019 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Hidden AJ Decision: Accused found not guilty. Catchwords: CRIMINAL LAW – trial by judge alone – murder – allegation of accused running over deceased in a car with the requisite intent – circumstantial case Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) s 52A(2) Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) s 38 Cases Cited: Meakin v R [2018] NSWCCA 288 Shepherd v The Queen (1990) 170 CLR 573 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Regina (Crown) Michael Meakin (Defendant) Representation: Counsel: J Bowers (Crown) N Steel (Defendant)

Solicitors: Solicitor for Public Prosecutions (Crown) Legal Aid NSW (Defendant) File Number(s): 2014/55959

Judgment 1. Early in the morning of Friday, 21 February 2014, a little after midnight, the accused, Michael Meakin, was driving a Toyota Hiace van on Richmond Road, Dean Park. The van collided with a pedestrian, Nicholas McEvoy, causing him fatal injuries. Mr McEvoy had been walking on a grass verge (or nature strip) at the side of Richmond Road, separated from the road by a gutter. The Crown alleges that Mr Meakin drove the van partially onto that grass verge and deliberately ran over Mr McEvoy, intending to kill him or to cause him really serious bodily injury. It is Mr Meakin's case that the incident was a tragic accident: that Mr McEvoy stepped or stumbled onto the roadway, and it was there that the van struck him. Mr Meakin acknowledges that he failed to react in time to avoid the collision because he was affected by alcohol. 2. Mr Meakin was arraigned before me, sitting without a jury, on an indictment containing two counts: 1. the murder of Mr McEvoy; 2. in the alternative, dangerous driving occasioning the death of Mr McEvoy in circumstances of aggravation: s 52A(2) of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), the circumstance of aggravation being that he was driving with the prescribed concentration of alcohol in his blood: subs (7). The prescribed concentration of alcohol is defined as 0.15 grams or more of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood: subs (8). 1. Mr Meakin pleaded not guilty to the first count but guilty to the second count. Accordingly, the trial of the first count proceeded before me. It is a retrial. Mr Meakin was convicted of murder after a trial by jury in 2016, but on appeal that conviction was set aside (on the basis of an issue which does not arise in the present trial) and a new trial was ordered: Meakin v R [2018] NSWCCA 288. 2. Late in the evening of Thursday, 20 February 2014, there was an encounter between the two men, who did not know each other, at the Plumpton Hotel. That hotel is situated on Richmond Road, Dean Park, near to where the fatal collision occurred. Richmond Road is a concrete road, a major thoroughfare running from east (towards Blacktown) to west (towards Richmond). The hotel is on the southern side of that road. In front of it is a car park, from which access to the main entrance is gained. Vehicular access to the car park is from a driveway on Dublin Street, which is on the western side of the hotel and intersects with Richmond Road. Immediately to the east of the hotel, but within the same block and under the same administration, is a motel. 3. At the relevant time, Mr Meakin lived in Terrace Road, Freemans Reach, which is not far from Richmond and is about 20 kilometres from the hotel. Mr McEvoy lived in Eastern Road, Quakers Hill, about 20 minutes' walk from the hotel. 4. Mr Meakin did not give evidence at this trial. That, of course, was his right and gives rise to no inference adverse to him. However, he did give evidence in the previous trial and the transcript of that evidence was admitted in the Crown case in this trial. It was relied upon by his counsel, Mr Steel, in presenting his case. I shall refer to aspects of that evidence in the course of summarising the Crown case.