By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim With the advent of smartphones, members of the public have had the ability to film officers of the law as they go about their duties. And on the occasions that citizens capture them behaving in a questionable manner, these video clips invariably end up being shared on social media… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Criminal Law
Section 32 Mental Health Applications Require a Treatment Provider and Plan to be Specified
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim As Keith Saunders was walking down a street in Surry Hills on 27 February 2016, he spat in the face of a baby being pushed along in a pram by her grandmother. The man spat a sizeable amount of phlegm into the 3-month-old infants’ face, for apparently no reason…. Read more »
NSW Police Force Releases its Rules for Personal Searches
Seemingly, in response to rising community concerns over a lack of transparency around NSW police use of search powers, which has seen a 47 percent rise in strip search use over the four years to June 2018, the NSW Police Force last month publicly released its Person Search Manual. The Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities)… Read more »
False Accusations are a Crime in New South Wales
By Amy Sarcevic and Ugur Nedim As children, many of us heard the fable about the boy who cried wolf. For most of us, the story did its job and we learned never to make false assertions, for fear of being ignored the next time we needed someone to listen. But somewhere along the way,… Read more »
Should Industrial Manslaughter be a Crime Throughout Australia?
Earlier this month, a man in his thirties was fatally injured in a workplace accident in Sydney. Paramedics found the man with his head caught inside a piece of machinery at a pallet factory. He is believed to have suffered major head injuries and blood loss before dying at the scene. Tragic cases like this… Read more »
The NSW Laws Relating to Drug Detection Dogs
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim The 2006 NSW Ombudsman report into the laws regarding the use of drug detection dogs by NSW police remains the most comprehensive study into this aspect of policing that’s ever been undertaken in this state. The statutory review delved into the effectiveness of laws governing the warrantless use of… Read more »
Never Consent to a Pat Down, Car Search or Strip Search
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim “Go for it. There is nothing in here,” was the response Troy Leonard gave to Constable Geoffrey Barnes, when he asked to search the man’s car on the Sturt Highway in April 2000. Barnes had pulled Leonard over to breathalyse him and remarked that the road was notorious for… Read more »
Zoe’s Law: NSW Government Moves to Criminalise Foetal Homicide
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Richard Moananu was driving at 45 kilometres above the speed limit and without a licence, when he ploughed a Mazda 3 into a Nissan Tiida on a street in Sydney’s Orchard Hills on Friday evening, 28 September 2018 . The collission caused the death of 23-year-old Katherine Hoang and… Read more »
Sydney Man Sentenced to 28 Years for Murdering His Girlfriend
Sydney Man Onitolosi Etuini Atiai Latu, aged 31, who was found guilty of the murdering his girlfriend Rhonda Baker in August 2016 has been sentenced to 28 years behind bars, with a non-parole period of 21 years. The maximum sentence for murder in New south Wales is life imprisonment, with a standard non-parole period (SNPP)… Read more »
The Crime of Larceny in New South Wales
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Following the weekend beginning 3 May 2014, Wallabadah service station owner Ivan Hulbert was not a happy man, as he’d basically worked for free over the two day period, after a total of five motorists had failed to pay for their fuel and simply driven off at his New… Read more »