NSW Courts Articles

Police Cannot Enter Private Land Without a Warrant If Prohibited by a Trespass Sign

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Along with senior constable Rankin, then NSW police acting sergeant Fahey attended a NSW Northern Rivers region property at Warrazambil Creek on 24 August 2021, in relation to an email detective inspector Greenwood received suggesting a potential illegal gathering may take place. The legality of the gathering or possible… Read more »

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Courts Must Not Consider General Deterrence When Sentencing Mentally Ill Defendants

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim NSW police executed a search warrant on 15 April 2020, at a house in Yagoona, where Quoc Toan Chu lived with his parents. When officers arrived at the premises, Chu indicated which room was his. And when asked if that was where the drugs were hidden, he replied, “Just… Read more »

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What Are the New Sexual Consent Laws in New South Wales?

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim In response to a broad debate about sexual violence towards women both globally and across the country, as well as a local focus around the 2013 alleged Lazarus sexual assault case in Kings Cross, new sexual consent laws took effect in NSW on 1 June last year. Passed in November the… Read more »

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Fresh Evidence Can Be Tendered on Appeal in Rare and Exceptional Cases

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim In early 2018, Sydney man James Barnes spotted a woman walking alone through Sydney University at around 8 pm. After having finished work for the day, she was making her way towards Parramatta Road in order to catch a bus to Ashfield, where she lived. Barnes followed her, catching… Read more »

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Personality Disorders Should Be Considered a Mitigating Factor in Sentencing

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim NSW police were again called to attend the home of Sandra Wornes on 28 July 2019, as the 46-year-old woman had once more physically assaulted her long-term partner Mr Robson. Wornes, who suffers from a personality disorder, had grabbed the 47-year-old man by the neck and punched him. Despite… Read more »

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Courts Must Apply a 25% Sentencing Discount for All Early Guilty Pleas

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim On the afternoon of 19 December 2018, Belmont South resident Guy McCulloch suddenly reversed his car towards Justin Fuller, who was in pursuit of it on foot. Holding two machetes, Fuller then reached in and stabbed the driver five times, with one blow penetrating McCulloch’s liver fatally. Fuller was… Read more »

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Prosecutors Routinely Ignore Their Legal Duty to Serve Evidence on the Defence

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim A duty of disclosure exists within the NSW criminal justice system, and in all other jurisdictions across the nation, which requires the prosecution to provide the defence with all the evidence it has prior to the trial commencing. This stipulation exists in the legislative guidelines governing the various state criminal… Read more »

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Questioning Ruled Inadmissible as ASIO Agents Had Effectively Kidnapped the Suspect

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Prior to empanelling a jury for the 2007 trialling of Izhar Ul-Haque on a charge of training with a known terrorist organisation, NSW Supreme Court Justice Michael Adams had to make voir dire determination, which is a decision on whether evidence before a court is admissible. The evidence in question… Read more »

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Gay Hate Murder Conviction Quashed, Despite Defendant’s Guilty Plea

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Releasing its final findings in late 2017, the third coronial inquest into the death of US mathematician Scott Johnson, whose body was found at the base of Blue Fish Point in the Sydney suburb of Manly on 10 December 1988, determined it was the result of a gay hate crime…. Read more »

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Lawyer Struck Off for Stealing Nearly $1 Million to Gamble

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim On 17 January 2017, NSW man Tony Nash made a complaint to the NSW Legal Services Commissioner about a delay in receiving trust money relating to the sale of his property from solicitor Barbara Ann Green, who’d been acting on his behalf regarding the transaction. On taking over the case,… Read more »

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