Knight and Ors v The Queen

The applicants, Knight and others, appealed to the High Court of Australia against their convictions for conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug. The central dispute concerned the admissibility of certain evidence obtained through electronic surveillance, specifically recordings made by listening devices.

The High Court was required to determine whether the evidence obtained by the listening devices was admissible, notwithstanding that the warrants authorising their use were issued by a magistrate who was not a judicial officer of a federal court or a state/territory court. The applicants argued that the *Crimes Act 1914* (Cth) required such warrants to be issued by a judicial officer of a federal court or a state/territory court, and that the magistrate in question did not meet this criterion.

The Court reasoned that the definition of "magistrate" in the *Crimes Act* included persons who held that office in a state or territory, regardless of whether they were judicial officers of a federal court. It was held that the magistrate who issued the warrants was a judicial officer of a state court, and therefore the warrants were validly issued. Consequently, the evidence obtained through the listening devices was admissible.

The appeals were dismissed.