Hartwick v The Queen

[1997] HCATrans 220

IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Office of the Registry
  Melbourne  No M95 of 1996

B e t w e e n -

JOHN DOUGLAS HARTWICK

Applicant

and

THE QUEEN

Respondent

BRENNAN CJ
DAWSON J
TOOHEY J

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

AT MELBOURNE ON FRIDAY, 15 AUGUST 1997, AT 9.50 AM

Copyright in the High Court of Australia

BRENNAN CJ:   The parties in this matter have indicated that they do not propose to appear.  I take it there is no appearance on either side?

The Court has considered the written submissions in this matter.  The applicant seeks an extension of time in which to apply for special leave to appeal from the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeal of Victoria which dismissed his application for leave to appeal against conviction and sentence. 

The present application does not relate to sentence, only to the applicant’s conviction on three counts of theft and one of armed robbery.  The applicant’s proposed grounds of appeal contend that the trial judge’s direction to the jury was inadequate in a number of respects.  The Court of Criminal Appeal dealt in some detail with all the matters of which the applicant now complains and we can detect no error in that Court’s disposition of those matters.

The applicant has filed a statutory declaration explaining the delay in the filing of the application for special leave to appeal, a delay of some 18 months.  As an appeal would have no prospect of success, an extension of time would serve no purpose.  Accordingly, the Court refuses the application for an extension of time in which to apply for special leave to appeal.

AT 9.52 AM THE MATTER WAS CONCLUDED