DPP v White (Ruling no 3)
[2008] VSC 284
•13 June 2008
| IN THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA | ||
| CRIMINAL DIVISION | Not Restricted | |
No. 1568 of 2007
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| LEE WHITE |
Ruling No. 3
JUDGE: | Cummins J |
WHERE HELD: | Wodonga |
DATE OF HEARING: | 13 June 2008 |
DATE OF RULING: | 13 June 2008 |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v White (Ruling No. 3) |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2008] VSC 284 |
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Criminal law and procedure – intentionally causing serious injury – jury trial – issue as to possible personal knowledge by juror – no enquiry by Court warranted.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Mr A Tinney | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr J Desmond | Kerry Clancy Solicitor |
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Ruling No. 3
HIS HONOUR:
Mr Desmond has most responsibly raised an issue which arises from his instructions late this morning. For the reasons which are apparent in discussion between the Bench and counsel, I do not propose to make any enquiry of the jury.
In my view for there to be any substance in the concern now expressed on behalf of the accused or his family, the juror would have to have deliberately disobeyed the instructions to the panel at the start of the trial and continuously during this week deliberately disobeyed them and in my view that is a most unlikely event.
The circumstance that the juror might have resided in McGovern Court is not the point. The point is whether the juror has any knowledge of the accused through drug dealings which would be antipathetic to the juror sitting in the trial, not whether the witness simply lived in McGovern Court, or for that matter whether the witness has ever seen the accused or his family. It is not the seeing the accused that is the point of issue; it is the knowledge of criminal activity by the accused or those connected to him. That is the issue and in my view I do not consider it is a reasonable possibility that a juror would have that knowledge and sit through this trial after the instructions at the start about not sitting as a juror if any of the parties to the events were known by a member of the panel.
Accordingly, I will make no enquiry of the jury and we will proceed.
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