Fawcett v The Queen

The applicant, Gwilym Thomas Fawcett, stands charged with one count of deprivation of liberty and three counts of attempted murder, with alternate counts of attempting to strike a person with a projectile with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. The applicant's bail application was opposed by the Crown, which argued that the offences were extremely serious and required exceptional circumstances to be shown in order to justify a grant of bail. The applicant submitted that the Crown's case was weak and that exceptional circumstances were shown by the length of time before trial, the availability of an excellent surety, and the weak prosecution case.

The court found that the nature of the offences and the circumstances of their alleged commission were such as to put them into the category of extremely serious offences. However, the court concluded that bail should not be refused on that account, as the applicant had no prior record for offences of violence, and had strong family support. The court considered that the risk of the applicant committing an offence or endangering the safety of a person could be sufficiently removed by imposing certain conditions, including a personal undertaking and surety requirements, residential, passport, and reporting conditions, and a violence restraining order. The court was satisfied that these conditions would sufficiently ensure the applicant would attend for his trial and overcome the concerns arising under the Bail Act.

The court granted the applicant's bail application, subject to the imposition of the proposed conditions, including a violence restraining order. The applicant was required to give a personal undertaking in the sum of $75,000, with his mother as surety in the same amount. The applicant was also required to reside at his mother's residence, report daily to the Officer in Charge of the Victoria Park Police Station, surrender his passport, and not approach within 2 km of points of interstate or international departure. The applicant was further required not to contact, directly or indirectly, any of the civilian witnesses named on the indictment. The court also made a violence restraining order against the applicant in respect of each of Melissa Yvette D'Amico, Giovanni Paul Ruiz, Steven Michael Merenda, and Michael James Flower, restraining the applicant from approaching within 50 metres of a protected person and communicating or attempting to communicate with a protected person. The court noted that every violence restraining order includes a restraint prohibiting a person bound by it from being in possession of a firearm.