Dupas v The Queen

The High Court of Australia considered an appeal by Mr Dupas against a decision of the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Victoria. Mr Dupas, who was charged with murder, had applied to the trial judge for a permanent stay of his trial. The basis of this application was that extensive pre-trial publicity concerning two previous murder convictions rendered a fair trial impossible. The Full Court had dismissed Mr Dupas's appeal against the trial judge's refusal to grant the permanent stay.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether the Full Court erred in upholding the trial judge's decision not to grant a permanent stay. This required the High Court to consider the principles governing the power to order a permanent stay of proceedings in cases of extreme or singular prejudicial pre-trial publicity, as established in *R v Glennon*. The court had to determine whether the publicity in this instance met the threshold of being so extreme or singular as to prevent a fair trial.

The High Court affirmed that the power to grant a permanent stay due to pre-trial publicity is an exceptional one, reserved for cases where the unfairness is demonstrable and unavoidable. The court found that the publicity surrounding Mr Dupas's previous convictions, while significant, did not reach the level of extremity or singularity required to justify a permanent stay. The court reasoned that the ordinary safeguards available in criminal proceedings, such as jury directions and the selection process, were sufficient to mitigate any potential prejudice arising from the publicity. Therefore, the Full Court had not erred in its assessment.

The appeal was dismissed, and the respondent's summons was also dismissed.