Attorney General of New South Wales v Cooper (by his tutor Stephen Stuart) (Final)

In the Supreme Court of New South Wales, the Attorney General sought an extension order for the detention of the respondent, a forensic patient, under the Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Forensic Provisions Act 2020. The patient had a history of child abuse material offending and had committed the index offences of using a carriage service to access and possess child abuse material, contravening a prohibition order, and failing to comply with reporting obligations. The case reached the final hearing stage, where the court had to determine whether the patient should remain a forensic patient.

The central legal issues the court addressed were whether the patient posed an unacceptable risk of causing serious harm to others, including psychological harm, and whether this risk could not be adequately managed by less restrictive means. The court was required to consider expert opinions on the patient's mental health status, the nature of the offences, and the potential for the patient to cause serious harm if released. The court also had to weigh the risk of psychological harm to child participants in the material viewed, copied, shared, or accessed by the patient against the need to protect the broader community.

The court found that the patient posed an unacceptable risk of causing serious psychological harm to child participants in the child abuse material, and that accessing such material perpetuated a market, creating a risk of serious harm to children used in the creation of new material. The court was satisfied to a high degree of probability that the risk could not be adequately managed by less restrictive means. Consequently, the court granted an extension order for the detention of the patient for a period of two years. The court's decision was based on the evidence presented, expert opinions, and the need to protect the community from potential harm caused by the patient's actions.