Attorney-General (Qld) v Sands

[2016] QSC 225

SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

Attorney-General (Qld) v Sands [2016] QSC 225

PARTIES:

ATTORNEY-GENERAL FOR THE STATE OF QUEENSLAND

(applicant)

v
ERIC SANDS

(respondent)

FILE NO/S:

BS No 11025 of 2010

DIVISION:

Trial

PROCEEDING:

Application

ORIGINATING COURT:

Supreme Court at Brisbane

DELIVERED ON:

4 October 2016

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

4 October 2016

JUDGE:

Burns J

ORDER:

Application dismissed

CATCHWORDS:

CRIMINAL LAW – SENTENCE – SENTENCING ORDERS – ORDERS AND DECLARATIONS RELATING TO SERIOUS OR VIOLENT OFFENDERS OR DANGEROUS SEXUAL OFFENDERS – DANGEROUS SEXUAL OFFENDER – GENERALLY – where a supervision order was made with respect to the respondent under Division 3 of Part 2 of the Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act 2003 (Qld) – where it was later suspected that the respondent was likely to contravene a requirement of the supervision order – where a warrant was issued for the arrest of the respondent pursuant to s 20 of the Act – where the applicant sought orders under s 22 of the Act with respect to the respondent – whether, at the date of the final hearing of the application, the respondent was likely to contravene a requirement of the supervision order

Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act 2003 (Qld), s 16, s 20, s 21, s 22

Attorney-General (Qld) v Downs [2014] QSC 140, cited
Attorney-General (Qld) v Friend [2011] QCA 357, cited

Attorney-General (Qld) v Griffin [2015] QSC 31, cited

COUNSEL:

J M Sharp for the applicant

C R Smith for the respondent

SOLICITORS:

Crown Solicitor for the applicant

Legal Aid Queensland for the respondent

1. The respondent, Eric Sands, comes before the court pursuant to a warrant issued under s 20 of the Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act 2003 (Qld).

2. Section 20 of the Act applies if a police officer or a corrective services officer reasonably suspects that a prisoner who is the subject of a supervision order or interim supervision order made under the Act is “likely to contravene, is contravening, or has contravened, a requirement of” that order: s 20(1). In any such case, the officer may, by complaint made on oath, apply to a magistrate for a warrant to arrest the prisoner and, if such a warrant is issued[1] and then executed, the prisoner will be brought before the court to be “dealt with according to law”: s 20(2).[2]

   [1]The Magistrate must issue the warrant if satisfied that grounds (for the reasonable suspicion on the part of a police officer or corrective services that the prisoner is likely to contravene, is contravening, or has contravened, a requirement of his supervision order) exist: s 20(3).

   [2]Not every contravention of a supervision order will necessarily lead to an application for a warrant. Some contraventions may rightly be regarded as aberrations. Others may be trivial. Some may be considered peripheral to be true objects of the supervision order, that is to say, managing the risk the prisoner would otherwise pose to the community in the absence of the order. On the other hand, a…