In delivering its 12 August 2026 ruling on The King versus Ko, the majority of the High Court dismissed the Crown appeal against the August 2025 decision of the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal to quash the drug importation conviction against Tsz Cheung Herman Ko, as the trial judge failed to direct the… Read more »
The New South Wales Criminal Court of Appeal (NSWCCA) ordered that Acting NSW District Court Judge James Bennett be removed from presiding over the trial of Michael Bechara, after the defendant appealed the judge’s decision to refusal his recusal order, which is an order that the judge remove himself from the case, based on the… Read more »
Confidence in the New South Wales criminal justice system is at its lowest ebb since the NSW Bureau of Crimes Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) commenced periodically surveying the metric in 2007, with only a little over half of adults consulted, or 54 percent, considering that people who commit crimes are brought to justice, while confidence… Read more »
In providing the address to open the 2026 law term, NSW Chief Justice Andrew Bell reflected on how “the state of the profession, the courts, the rule of law and areas of common interest and concern” had progressed over 2025, and in doing so, he recalled the concerns he’d had in respect of the rule… Read more »
As of Wednesday, 21 January 2026, senior New South Wales police officers had issued public safety orders (PSO) to at least 12 neo-Nazis in the Greater Sydney area, ordering them to keep a wide berth from the city’s CBD and its surrounds on 26 January 2026, as their presence at a planned antiimmigration rally on… Read more »
NSW Greens MP for Newtown Jenny Leong introduced her Human Rights Bill 2025 on Thursday, 23 October, and the understanding is that this legislation is appearing before NSW parliament at a time when the constituency is experiencing “the burden of divisions” both “local and global”, and the establishment of rights for all citizens and residents,… Read more »
Emma Stanley became aware that her cousin Seth Harvey had stored firearms, firearms parts and ammunition in the back of a vehicle in her yard and in a manhole under her home in the north central NSW regional town of Dubbo on 18 March 2019. As it turned out, Stanley’s cousin was storing the guns… Read more »
During a 2006 speech he gave at the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law, then NSW Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery addressed the inception and benefits of a relatively new sentencing regime that had recently been established – that being guideline judgements. As he recalled, NSW was heading for a March 1999… Read more »
“The risk of being involved in a serious car accident increases significantly when the driver’s blood alcohol range substantially exceeds the basic legal limit,” outlines a 2023 NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research report on sentencing high range prescribed concentration of alcohol drivers. “In particular”, underscored the BOCSAR researchers David Saffron and Marilyn Chilvers,… Read more »
Seven teenagers were charged with offences ranging from car theft to police pursuit early on Monday, as NSW police attempted to stop three vehicles close to the NSW town of Woy Woy at 2.30 am, as these were suspected to be reportedly stolen from suburbs around the Central Coast. One vehicle, a BMW, rammed into a police… Read more »